Worker put on unpaid leave for refusing to get vaccinated was not fired, B.C. court rules

A B.C. accountant who sued her employer over its mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy has had her claim dismissed.

A B.C. accountant who sued her employer over its mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy has had her claim dismissed.

Deepk Parmar's civil claim against Tribe Management Inc. alleged that the company "constructively dismissed" her when it placed her on unpaid leave for three months for failing to comply with the policy when it was implemented in late November 2021.

In a decision issued last week, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Heather MacNaughton concluded that Parmar's leave of absence did not amount to a constructive dismissal. 

Instead, the judge concluded Tribe's decision to implement a mandatory vaccination policy was "a reasonable and lawful response to the uncertainty created by the COVID-19 pandemic based on the information that was then available to it."

According to the court decision, Tribe is a publicly traded property management company that acquired Gateway Property Management in the summer of 2021. Parmar had been employed by Gateway since 2003, working her way up to a senior management position in the accounting department, which she continued to hold when Tribe acquired the company.

Before and after the acquisition, MacNaughton wrote, Parmar was a valued employee and there were no issues with her job performance.

After the COVID-19 pandemic began, Parmar began working from home, though the nature of her job required being present in the office periodically to sign cheques and fulfill other duties, according to the court decision.