Unvaccinated City of Hamilton employees are no longer facing termination.
Hamilton City Council voted 9-4 on Friday morning to suspend most components of its mandatory COVID-19 vaccination verification policy, requiring proof of full vaccination in the workplace.
City employees are no longer required to provide proof of vaccination or participate in the Rapid Antigen Testing (RAT) program as an ongoing condition of employment
The cost of pushing ahead with Hamilton’s employee vaccination policy, in the face of legal challenges and arbitration hearings, had been estimated to be up to $7.4 million.
Ward 7 Coun. Esther Pauls is celebrating the decision after spending several months fighting to convince colleagues to scrap the vaccination policy.
“We have put our employees through mental anguish,” Pauls said. “We have left them hanging, facing uncertain futures.”
Ward 3 Coun. Nrinder Nann was among those giving thanks to the 95 per cent, or more than 8,400 employees, who did comply with the vaccination policy.
Nann said they “took public health seriously” and “rose to the occasion … in terms of volunteering and being redeployed, and doing everything that we possibly could to mount one of the most historic vaccination programs the city has seen.”
Up to 264 city employees were facing termination or indefinite unpaid leave on Oct. 1 as a result of their vaccination status. That provision within the policy is now suspended.
The requirement to provide proof of vaccination remains a condition of employment for all new City of Hamilton hires.