The Chartwell Chronicles: Employment Law
Managing the Size and Structure of Your Post-Pandemic Workforce
#WorkforceWednesday: OSHA ETS on Hold, Retaliation Claims Increase, "Vaccination Ambassadors" - Employment Law This Week®
In Croke v. VuPoint System Ltd., 2024 ONCA 354, the Court of Appeal for Ontario (OCA) upheld the Superior Court of Justice – Ontario (SCJ)’s summary judgment decision that an employee’s refusal to comply with their employer’s...more
The Ontario Court of Appeal recently held that an employee’s failure to meet COVID-19 vaccination requirements imposed by a third party amounted to frustration of the employment contract. As a result, there was no obligation...more
Litigation over employment issues relating to the COVID-19 pandemic is finally reaching the trial and appellate courts. This week, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed dismissal of a lawsuit from a warehouse manager...more
An arbitrator recently issued the first award in Ontario to address and uphold the reasonableness of a hospital vaccination policy that provides for the termination of employment for non-compliance. In Lakeridge Health and...more
In the first ruling of its kind nationwide, a federal court in Texas has upheld a hospital’s policy requiring employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19 as a condition of continued employment... ...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: In a recent case out of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, the Court dismissed wrongful termination and violation of public policy claims brought by employees refusing an employer’s...more
On June 12, 2021, a federal judge in the Southern District of Texas dismissed a case filed by 116 hospital employees who challenged Houston Methodist Hospital’s (the “Hospital”) mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy. Jennifer...more
On April 1, 2021, Houston Methodist Hospital announced that all of its employees would be required to be vaccinated against COVID-19 by June 7, 2021, but that it would provide accommodations to any employee with disability...more
UPDATE: On June 12, 2021, the hospital’s motion to dismiss this lawsuit in its entirety was granted. The Court found that the hospital’s policy of mandating the COVID-19 vaccine aligned with its business of saving lives...more
A federal judge in Texas on June 12, 2021 dismissed a lawsuit brought by Texas health care workers challenging their hospital’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The scathing opinion by U.S. District Judge Lynn N. Hughes left no...more
Concluding that a highly publicized lawsuit challenging Houston Methodist Hospital’s mandatory vaccination policy failed to state viable legal claims and misrepresented certain facts, federal Judge Lynn Hughes dismissed the...more
Despite widespread vaccine availability and the corresponding optimism about returning to “normal,” the coronavirus pandemic continues to spawn hundreds of employment and health-related lawsuits. Many of these lawsuits have...more
On May 28, 2021, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) issued updated guidance regarding workplace COVID-19 vaccination policies and employee accommodations (the “Updated Guidance”). Among other issues, the...more
On May 28, 2021, 117 unvaccinated nonmanagerial employees from Houston Methodist Hospital filed a lawsuit to challenge the hospital’s vaccine mandate in Jennifer Bridges et al. v The Methodist Hospital. This appears to be the...more
Welcome to #WorkforceWednesday. This week, employers continue waiting on the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA’s) COVID-19 emergency temporary standard as retaliation claims rise. Secretary of Labor Puts...more
Welcome to this seventh issue of the 2021 edition of Unprecedented. There is a lot of good news around the COVID-19 pandemic. Easter weekend saw the United States mark another vaccination milestone, with 4 million doses...more
Yes, an employer can implement a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy, subject to some conditions and exceptions. A mandatory vaccine policy must be job-related, consistent with business necessity or justified by a direct...more