America

Canadian employers facing labor shortage, adjust without vaccination

December 6, 2021
Henry Club

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government adopted one of the strictest vaccine policies in the world for civil servants and has already placed more than 1,000 workers on unpaid leave, putting thousands more at risk.

airlines, police forces, school boards and even Canadian Big Five Bank Strict mandatory vaccine policies are also promised. But complying with it has proved less straightforward, especially when employers are grappling with staff shortages and demanding employee exemptions.
Job vacancies in Canada have more than doubled so far this year, official data show, and vaccine mandates could make those jobs harder to fill, potentially putting upward pressure on wages. that may be fuel inflation, is already running at a nearly two-decade high.

“It’s already difficult to find employees, let alone a vaccine mandate. You’ll cut a potential 20% of the workforce,” said Dan Kelly, chief executive of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.

There are disadvantages to employing a non-vaccinated one. Industry groups and marketing experts said companies run a higher risk of an outbreak of COVID-19 and that many vaccination workers are uncomfortable working with people who don’t have a jab.

At Montreal-based soup and sauce maker Lauda Foods, president Robert Eiser said they have 14 open jobs, no vaccine mandate and no plans to restrict new work to vaccinations.

“I don’t know if I want to reduce the (Labour) pool, which is already pretty low,” Eiser said. “We need to attract people to meet demand. If we don’t, our competitors will.”

Data released on Friday outlined Canada’s tight labor market with heavy 153,700 jobs added in November. It also showed a growing mismatch between available workers and unfinished jobs. And job postings are far above pre-pandemic levels.

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The province of Quebec withdrew from a vaccine mandate for healthcare workers last month, saying they could not afford to lose thousands of unvaccinated workers. Ontario, which was also eyeing a mandate, said it would not go ahead.

Toronto-Dominion Bank and the Bank of Montreal have both softened their vaccine policy to allow routine testing for workers who missed their October 31 deadline.

In Canada, 86% of adults are fully vaccinated, although this is less than 80% of 18-40 year olds. At least 15 cases of new omicron version In Canada have been reported in the past week.

John Cappelli, vice president of onsite managed services in Canada for global recruitment firm Adecco, said half of his clients are mandating vaccines while the other half are allowing routine testing without vaccinations.

But he hopes the Omicron version will inspire more workplaces to be tough on vaccination, even as they battle the toughest job market in their 25-year career.

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“We are now starting to see our first workplace (Covid-19) cases in five months,” he said.

The number of Canadian job postings on the search website actually mentioning vaccine requirements has quadrupled since August.

In the hard-hit manufacturing sector, where 77% of firms say their top concern is attracting and retaining workers, vaccine mandates are more scarce.

Dennis Darby, CEO of Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters, said most factories in Canada have operated safely during the pandemic. While CME encourages vaccination, “some companies are still using rapid testing if someone does not want to be vaccinated,” he said.

But companies run the risk of injury to their reputations if they go ahead with efforts to tap into the uninsured as the labor pool, said Wojtek Dabrowski, managing partner at Provident Communications.

“If you go out and say, ‘We’re intentionally seeking to hire unvaccinated people,’ many customers are comparing it to being anti-science and security,” Dabrowski said.

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