{"id":5865,"date":"2021-04-08T09:46:34","date_gmt":"2023-08-12T08:04:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/covid-19-vaccinations-and-infectious-disease-emergency-leave\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T14:13:48","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T18:13:48","slug":"covid-19-vaccinations-and-infectious-disease-emergency-leave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/en\/insights\/labour-and-employment\/covid-19-vaccinations-and-infectious-disease-emergency-leave\/","title":{"rendered":"COVID-19 vaccinations and infectious disease emergency leave"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>UPDATE:<\/strong>&nbsp; This amendment to the Guide was removed following publication of this article.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When dealing with employees who fail or refuse to take the COVID-19 vaccine, employers in Ontario may wish to consider, among other things, whether such employee(s) should be placed on an infectious disease emergency leave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The <em>Employment Standards Act, 2000 <\/em>provides that an employee can take an infectious disease emergency leave if they will not be performing the duties of their position because, among other qualifying reasons, they are under a direction given by their employer in response to the employer\u2019s concern that the employee may expose others in the workplace to the infectious disease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A failure or refusal to take the COVID-19 vaccine may give rise to such a concern, qualifying the employer to place an employee on infectious disease emergency leave. This position appears to be supported by the recent amendment to the Ministry of Labour\u2019s <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ontario.ca\/document\/your-guide-employment-standards-act-0\/infectious-disease-emergency-leave\">Your Guide to the Employment Standards Act<\/a><\/em> which now provides, as an example of a qualifying reason for infectious disease emergency leave, circumstances \u201cwhere the employer is concerned that employees who have not received the&nbsp;COVID-19&nbsp;vaccine may expose others in the workplace to&nbsp;COVID-19&nbsp;and tells them not to come to work until they have been vaccinated.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Prior to resorting to infectious disease emergency leave, employers should consider all other relevant factors, including privacy law, human rights and any contractual obligations.&nbsp; We encourage employers to seek advice specific to their unique circumstances.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>UPDATE:&nbsp; This amendment to the Guide was removed following publication of this article. &nbsp; When dealing with employees who fail or refuse to take the COVID-19 vaccine, employers in Ontario may wish to consider, among other things, whether such employee(s) should be placed on an infectious disease emergency leave. The Employment Standards Act, 2000 provides [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":100,"featured_media":14369,"parent":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[542],"insight-format":[416],"class_list":["post-5865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-labour-and-employment"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>COVID-19 vaccinations and infectious disease emergency leave | Miller Thomson<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/en\/insights\/labour-and-employment\/covid-19-vaccinations-and-infectious-disease-emergency-leave\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"COVID-19 vaccinations and infectious disease emergency leave | Miller Thomson\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"UPDATE:&nbsp; This amendment to the Guide was removed following publication of this article. &nbsp; When dealing with employees who fail or refuse to take the COVID-19 vaccine, employers in Ontario may wish to consider, among other things, whether such employee(s) should be placed on an infectious disease emergency leave. The Employment Standards Act, 2000 provides [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/en\/insights\/labour-and-employment\/covid-19-vaccinations-and-infectious-disease-emergency-leave\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Miller Thomson\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MillerThomsonLaw\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-08-12T08:04:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-03-18T18:13:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"believeco\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@millerthomson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@millerthomson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"believeco\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/en\/insights\/labour-and-employment\/covid-19-vaccinations-and-infectious-disease-emergency-leave\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/en\/insights\/labour-and-employment\/covid-19-vaccinations-and-infectious-disease-emergency-leave\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"believeco\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/ae50f6e0b1c66658587aa8d9d9252892\"},\"headline\":\"COVID-19 vaccinations and infectious disease emergency leave\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-08-12T08:04:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-03-18T18:13:48+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/en\/insights\/labour-and-employment\/covid-19-vaccinations-and-infectious-disease-emergency-leave\/\"},\"wordCount\":260,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/en\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/en\/insights\/labour-and-employment\/covid-19-vaccinations-and-infectious-disease-emergency-leave\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Insights_Labour-and-Employment_Post-Image.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Labour and Employment\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":[\"WebPage\",\"ItemPage\"],\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/en\/insights\/labour-and-employment\/covid-19-vaccinations-and-infectious-disease-emergency-leave\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/en\/insights\/labour-and-employment\/covid-19-vaccinations-and-infectious-disease-emergency-leave\/\",\"name\":\"COVID-19 vaccinations and infectious disease emergency leave | Miller Thomson\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/en\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/en\/insights\/labour-and-employment\/covid-19-vaccinations-and-infectious-disease-emergency-leave\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/en\/insights\/labour-and-employment\/covid-19-vaccinations-and-infectious-disease-emergency-leave\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Insights_Labour-and-Employment_Post-Image.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-08-12T08:04:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-03-18T18:13:48+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/en\/insights\/labour-and-employment\/covid-19-vaccinations-and-infectious-disease-emergency-leave\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/en\/insights\/labour-and-employment\/covid-19-vaccinations-and-infectious-disease-emergency-leave\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/en\/insights\/labour-and-employment\/covid-19-vaccinations-and-infectious-disease-emergency-leave\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Insights_Labour-and-Employment_Post-Image.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Insights_Labour-and-Employment_Post-Image.jpg\",\"width\":1776,\"height\":994},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/en\/insights\/labour-and-employment\/covid-19-vaccinations-and-infectious-disease-emergency-leave\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/en\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"COVID-19 vaccinations and infectious disease emergency leave\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/en\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/en\/\",\"name\":\"Miller Thomson\",\"description\":\"National law firm providing business law expertise and litigation and disputes services for businesses across Canada since 1957.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/en\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/en\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/en\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Miller Thomson\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/en\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/miller-thomson.svg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/miller-thomson.svg\",\"width\":380,\"height\":50,\"caption\":\"Miller Thomson\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MillerThomsonLaw\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/millerthomson\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/miller-thomson-llp\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@millerthomson\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/ae50f6e0b1c66658587aa8d9d9252892\",\"name\":\"believeco\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0630e548257b5beb2605be4633af29f897bd2b9a93553a9f26c61b3b65763899?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0630e548257b5beb2605be4633af29f897bd2b9a93553a9f26c61b3b65763899?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"believeco\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"COVID-19 vaccinations and infectious disease emergency leave | Miller Thomson","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/en\/insights\/labour-and-employment\/covid-19-vaccinations-and-infectious-disease-emergency-leave\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"COVID-19 vaccinations and infectious disease emergency leave | Miller Thomson","og_description":"UPDATE:&nbsp; This amendment to the Guide was removed following publication of this article. &nbsp; When dealing with employees who fail or refuse to take the COVID-19 vaccine, employers in Ontario may wish to consider, among other things, whether such employee(s) should be placed on an infectious disease emergency leave. The Employment Standards Act, 2000 provides [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/en\/insights\/labour-and-employment\/covid-19-vaccinations-and-infectious-disease-emergency-leave\/","og_site_name":"Miller Thomson","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MillerThomsonLaw\/","article_published_time":"2023-08-12T08:04:04+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-03-18T18:13:48+00:00","author":"believeco","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@millerthomson","twitter_site":"@millerthomson","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"believeco","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/en\/insights\/labour-and-employment\/covid-19-vaccinations-and-infectious-disease-emergency-leave\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/en\/insights\/labour-and-employment\/covid-19-vaccinations-and-infectious-disease-emergency-leave\/"},"author":{"name":"believeco","@id":"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/ae50f6e0b1c66658587aa8d9d9252892"},"headline":"COVID-19 vaccinations and infectious disease emergency leave","datePublished":"2023-08-12T08:04:04+00:00","dateModified":"2026-03-18T18:13:48+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/en\/insights\/labour-and-employment\/covid-19-vaccinations-and-infectious-disease-emergency-leave\/"},"wordCount":260,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/en\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/en\/insights\/labour-and-employment\/covid-19-vaccinations-and-infectious-disease-emergency-leave\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Insights_Labour-and-Employment_Post-Image.jpg","articleSection":["Labour and Employment"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":["WebPage","ItemPage"],"@id":"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/en\/insights\/labour-and-employment\/covid-19-vaccinations-and-infectious-disease-emergency-leave\/","url":"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/en\/insights\/labour-and-employment\/covid-19-vaccinations-and-infectious-disease-emergency-leave\/","name":"COVID-19 vaccinations and infectious disease emergency leave | Miller Thomson","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/en\/insights\/labour-and-employment\/covid-19-vaccinations-and-infectious-disease-emergency-leave\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/en\/insights\/labour-and-employment\/covid-19-vaccinations-and-infectious-disease-emergency-leave\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Insights_Labour-and-Employment_Post-Image.jpg","datePublished":"2023-08-12T08:04:04+00:00","dateModified":"2026-03-18T18:13:48+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/en\/insights\/labour-and-employment\/covid-19-vaccinations-and-infectious-disease-emergency-leave\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/en\/insights\/labour-and-employment\/covid-19-vaccinations-and-infectious-disease-emergency-leave\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/en\/insights\/labour-and-employment\/covid-19-vaccinations-and-infectious-disease-emergency-leave\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Insights_Labour-and-Employment_Post-Image.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Insights_Labour-and-Employment_Post-Image.jpg","width":1776,"height":994},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/en\/insights\/labour-and-employment\/covid-19-vaccinations-and-infectious-disease-emergency-leave\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"COVID-19 vaccinations and infectious disease emergency leave"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/en\/","name":"Miller Thomson","description":"National law firm providing business law expertise and litigation and disputes services for businesses across Canada since 1957.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/en\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/en\/#organization","name":"Miller Thomson","url":"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/en\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/miller-thomson.svg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/miller-thomson.svg","width":380,"height":50,"caption":"Miller Thomson"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MillerThomsonLaw\/","https:\/\/x.com\/millerthomson","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/miller-thomson-llp\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@millerthomson"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/ae50f6e0b1c66658587aa8d9d9252892","name":"believeco","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0630e548257b5beb2605be4633af29f897bd2b9a93553a9f26c61b3b65763899?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0630e548257b5beb2605be4633af29f897bd2b9a93553a9f26c61b3b65763899?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"believeco"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/100"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5865"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5865\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48045,"href":"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5865\/revisions\/48045"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5865"},{"taxonomy":"insight-format","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.millerthomson.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/insight-format?post=5865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}