This sensitive topic has been a huge conversation for staffing agencies like ABL and their client companies.
Of particular concern was balancing the medical privacy of our candidates with the requirements for vaccine disclosure at certain workplaces to keep everyone safe. Add to that the general fatigue and irritation many people are experiencing over this topic – it’s been quite the month!
Provincial Vaccine Passport rollouts in places like BC (as of 09/13/2021) and Ontario’s “proof of vaccination” initiative beginning September 22nd have meant many workplaces have taken the plunge and instituted mandatory vaccine policies… right in the middle of one of the busiest times of year for many of our customers, with huge impacts on recruiting efforts in an already tight employee market.
ABL Employment | ABL Careers is the employer for thousands of assignment employees, and we, too, have been walking the fine line of “Can we ask about vaccine status to make appropriate job matches?” and “How do we protect the privacy of the medical information of our assignment employees?”.
The current best advice we’ve been able to get from our legal teams indicates we can ask if our candidates would like to voluntarily disclose their vaccination status in order to be matched to as many appropriate jobs as possible for their circumstances.
To help support the privacy of our candidates’ medical records until the digital provincial vaccine passports are available, we’re able to offer our client companies who require proof of vaccination our attestation that we have viewed the vaccine certificates for those candidates who have voluntarily disclosed that they are partially or fully vaccinated.
Since this is a very fluid situation socially, politically, and legally, we remain vigilant in following this developing situation, and we welcome conversation with our client companies on how we can best navigate this situation together as partners in moving business forward.
If you have questions about this topic and how it relates to your workplace, please reach out to ABL’s Occupational Wellness Manager, Carla Villalta. You can email her at Carla@ablemployment.com