The owner of a popular Greek restaurant in Penticton, B.C., said the business is implementing mandatory staff vaccinations in the wake of a “moral dilemma” involving B.C.’s new COVID-19 vaccine card.
Gregory Condonopoulos, owner of Theo’s Restaurant, said he has a duty of care to create a safe dining environment, but questions why customers must show proof of vaccination to eat at restaurants, when staff are not required to be immunized in order to serve them.
“The government has told us this is what we have to do. They presented us with a moral dilemma, in which, on one hand, we have to refuse entrance to unvaccinated customers,” he told Global News.
“On the other hand, how is it morally and ethically correct to have an unvaccinated staff member serving a vaccinated customer under the pretense that the restaurant is safe?”
The vaccine card went into effect on Sept. 13, as the province aims to curtail cases and hospitalizations in the fourth wave of the pandemic.
Anyone ages 12 and up who wants access to a range of non-essential indoor services must show proof of at least one dose of vaccine, with a second shot required by Oct. 24.
The digital or paper vaccine card is required at settings like ticketed sports events, concerts, restaurants, bars, nightclubs, casinos, gyms and movie theatres.
The card is not required at grocery and liquor stores, pharmacies, fast food restaurants, salons, hotels, banks, retail stores, food banks and shelters.
“Instead of using restaurants as pawns to negatively motivate people to get vaccinated, there is a percentage of everyone’s restaurant that has unvaccinated customers,” Condonopoulos said.
“Now we are put in a position where we have to discriminate. However, I do understand the balance required.”
He added the card has put yet another burden on the already struggling industry.
“One creative solution may have been to allow people choice, and perhaps even consider having vaccinated and unvaccinated sections.”
Condonopoulos said staff who refuse to get vaccinated will be placed on unpaid leave.
“The vast majority of my staff are pleased. We have a lot of vulnerable, high-risk staff members and they were nervous to find out that some staff members were unvaccinated.”
Jeff Guignard, executive director of the Alliance of Beverage Licensees, said Condonopoulos isn’t alone.
Several restaurant and bar owners in B.C. are requiring staff to be vaccinated.
“Customers would expect that if they can’t enter a building without being vaccinated, that the staff and the people serving them would be vaccinated as well, and I think that is logical,” he said.
“It is more complex, legally, to require staff as a condition of their employment to be vaccinated, so we have asked the government to give us some clear direction on that. But in the interim, a number of folks in the industry are stepping up and deciding to do it.”
Guignard said it’s unclear if requiring proof of vaccination as a condition of employment in a non-essential business could be successfully challenged.
“A lot of these issues haven’t been sorted out yet and tried in court. You could say, very logically, that during a pandemic, when all of British Columbians need to be vaccinated to get into the establishment, that if you’re interacting with the public and you can’t keep an appropriate distance that it would make sense to be a condition of your employment.”
As for customers, Condonopoulos said the vast majority are complying and he hasn’t run into a significant conflict so far.
The vaccine card, which will be place until at least Jan. 31, is one way the province is trying to keep the economy open and avoid the stricter lockdowns and closures in place earlier in the year.
On Wednesday, the BC Centre for Disease Control released another week of data on vaccination rates, showing 84 per cent of residents aged 12 and older in the Central Okanagan had at least one dose of vaccine as of Sept. 20. About a month ago, that number was only 79 per cent.
The South Okanagan region, Penticton and Summerland are at 85 to 87 per cent, while 79 per cent of people in nearby Keremeos have had one shot.
Province-wide, 87.1 per cent of eligible people 12 and older in B.C. have received their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine and 79.7 per cent received their second dose.
There are 5,458 active cases of COVID-19 in the province and 173,215 people who tested positive have recovered.
Of the active cases, 324 people are in hospital and 157 are in intensive care. The remaining people are recovering at home in self-isolation.
— With files from Kathy Michaels and the Canadian Press