Another aspect of Freedom of Expression in the age of Covid is whether workers feel empowered to speak out about safety concerns they see in their workplaces without fear of reprisal.
Most legislation has provisions to protect workers for speaking out on safety issues of any kind but many workplaces also take the position that by doing the expected things – plexiglass, providing masks & sanitizer, etc. – the workplace is no more dangerous than in pre-Covid times which is, at best, debatable given the outbreaks that have happened in various restaurants, retailers and other places where the public visits.
This example is a bit more egregious than a single fast-food worker possibly being exposed to a Covid positive customer. It happened when a seasonal worker from Mexico, living in a crowded bunkhouse in Ontario where others had Covid and at least one person died, was fired for speaking out.
The case went to the Ontario Labour Board who ruled in favour of the worker who was found to be justified in raising their concerns. Again, this is a pretty clear cut example where the employee was in the right and the employer was in the wrong but it’d be interesting to see how similar cases would play out when its perhaps not quite as clear cut?
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