Mandatory testing, education for unvaccinated City of Winnipeg employees who work with public

Some front-line City of Winnipeg employees who aren't fully immunized against COVID-19 by Nov. 15 will have to complete online education about the vaccines and be tested every 48 hours before coming into work, officials said Friday.

Unvaccinated staff may also be moved to jobs where they don't interact with the public instead of submitting to regular testing, though that option won't always be possible, city chief administrative officer Michael Jack said at a news conference.

Staff who fall under the mandate but refuse to be tested regularly may be put on unpaid leave once the November deadline arrives, he said.

"It's our hope that those in those designated positions will choose to get vaccinated after completing the online education," Jack said, adding that the city has worked to reduce barriers to vaccination among its workforce since it first announced the mandate.

The vaccine requirement applies to about 5,500 of the city's roughly 10,400 employees, and covers city staff who work in high-risk settings with direct, ongoing contact with the public, as well as those working with vulnerable residents, including kids under 12.

The city's education efforts so far have included setting up immunization clinics at certain workplaces and sharing information to address hesitancy around getting the jab, Jack said.

Part of that work has also included having candid conversations with staff about the root of their concerns.

"It runs the entire range of anxiety, resistance, just concern," he said.

"Someone who isn't prepared to get vaccinated may be coming at that from any angle. We're trying to do what we can to understand where our employees are coming from."

Winnipeg Mayor Brian Bowman said making sure people have access to reliable information about COVID-19 vaccines is crucial.

"This is something that I think is incredibly important because there is so much misinformation out there, especially on social media, when it comes to vaccines," he said alongside Jack at the news conference.

The online education will be mandatory for workers who haven't shown proof of vaccination by the deadline if they didn't apply for an exemption, or requested one and were determined to need the training, Jack said.

Testing a temporary option

He said the city is considering exemption requests, though exemptions on religious grounds are unlikely — Jack said the city's legal team has not been able to identify a religion that would make someone ineligible for vaccination.

About 86 per cent of the workers included in the mandate have already shown proof of vaccination.

"There are still two weeks and more data to be collected, and hopefully those numbers will just continue to increase," Bowman said.

The city worked with the province of Manitoba to get testing equipment ahead of its requirement, which is similar to a requirement previously introduced for some provincial workers.

Jack said regular testing will be an option for unvaccinated city workers for now, but not forever.

"We're not committing to running a testing program for the next decade. We're doing it now to address conditions that we face now. No employee should be viewing this as a permanent state of affairs," he said.

"I'm hoping that by the time we hit Nov. 15, we don't have hundreds of employees who are requiring … testing three times a week."

The city will also make operational changes if needed to assess any service impacts from unvaccinated staff being put on leave, Jack said.