BCH & Powertech – COVID19 Vaccine Mandate Policy – Final Update

On January 2, 2025, Arbitrator Somjen issued his final award outlining the reasonable remedies for compensation for workers for incurring losses due to being placed on leave without pay while the Vaccination Mandate policy was in place.

You can read the full decision here.

Since May 17, 2020, when a public health emergency was declared for the COVID-19 pandemic in BC, we have had countless meetings, communications, hearings, and conversations with your employers to deal with all the decisions and policies implemented to keep workers and the public safe.

We want to take the time to thank all of our members for your patience and support as we sorted through all the issues. We understand that the positive results of this grievance did not extend to all those who were affected, but we are confident that we did our absolute best to represent all our members during this challenging period.

Moving forward we will continue to work to our highest standards to support our members.

This is our final update related to the COVID-19 vaccine mandate policy. Here is a brief timeline for those who are interested in how we reached this point:

• March 2020: Public health emergency declared provincially. MoveUP and your employer worked to mitigate the effects of these challenges to ensure a safe working environment for you.
• October 2021: BC Hydro implemented vaccination policy. Those who did not declare their vaccination status by November 21, 2021, were placed on leave without pay. MoveUP challenged the reasonableness of this policy through the grievance process and fought this policy all the way to arbitration.
• June 2022: Arbitrator Somjen issued his award on the reasonableness of the mandate.
• July 2022: The BC Labour Board determined the employer policy was reasonable, but also determined it was reasonable for certain jobs to be done without contact with others resulting in “carve-outs” What roles deemed to be reasonable “carve-outs” would to be determined by Arbitrator Somjen if the parties could not come to a mutual agreement based on his award.
• September 2022: Employer announces suspension of vaccine mandate and provided directions on return-to-office for those affected by the policy.

October 2022: We met with the employer Arbitrator Somjen seeking clarity on the initial award. As a result of this discussion, a supplementary award was issued.

• March 2023: We worked with your employer to establish a list of jobs categorized as “carved-out,” “non-carved-out,” and “undetermined” based on Arbitrator Somjen’s supplementary award. Those with “undetermined” status were forwarded to the arbitrator for final decision.
• April 2023: The employer terminated their vaccination mandate policy.
• June/July 2023: We entered our final arguments on the undetermined position.
• September 2023: Arbitrator Somjen provided a 2^nd supplemental award citing a group of employees within the “design” group who would not be “carved-out”. With this decision, your union and the employer had three remaining outstanding issues yet to be determined.
• November 2024: All remaining individual claims were resolved through arbitration.

In solidarity,

Ronnie Ho, Union Representative
Javed Saheb, Union Representative