A federal labour relations board has dismissed grievances over the government’s decision to put unvaccinated public servants on leave without pay during the pandemic, according to the workers’ union.
The union said at the time that it had requested compensation for its members should they continue to be placed on unpaid leave due to the government’s policy. It said the grievances were being filed as the government began to review its vaccination policy six months after its implementation.
The policies were suspended in June 2022.
In its Feb. 4 news release, PSAC said placing employees, including those working remotely, on unpaid administrative leave was “disguised discipline” and an “unreasonable exercise of management rights.”
The union said the Federal Public Sector Labour Relations and Employment Board dismissed the grievances in December 2025, finding that the vaccination policies were within the authority of the employer’s management and that putting employees on leave without pay “did not constitute disciplinary action.”
The union had argued in its grievances in March 2022 that Ottawa’s mandatory vaccination policy to place remote workers on leave without pay constituted “an abuse of management authority because remote workers, who had little to no prospect of returning to physical workplaces in the long term, posed no reasonable threat to the health and safety of their workplaces.”
Other Cases
The decision was issued shortly after the labour relations board in November 2025 granted a federal employee back pay along with $5,000 in damages after his application for religious exemption from the government vaccination policy was rejected.The decision said Lemay was entitled to damages for “pain and suffering” he experienced resulting from the “loss of dignity and self-worth that he incurred by being placed on leave without pay.”
The employer was also required to provide Lemay with all of the pay and benefits that he would have received if he had remained on the job.
The former DND employee and Canadian Armed Forces member, Marvin Castillo, was suspended in 2021 after refusing to take the vaccine.
The ruling noted that Castillo’s “sincere religious belief” should have been sufficient grounds for an exemption from taking the vaccine.
This decision came after earlier decisions by the labour board finding that vaccine mandates infringed on Canadians’ Charter rights. This included a May 2025 ruling that overturned suspensions against a meteorologist and an IT analyst at the National Research Council. Both employees refused the COVID-19 vaccine on religious grounds.
