Air Canada ordered to pay pilots who were denied religious covid vaccine exemption
An arbitrator has ordered Air Canada to grant back pay to seven pilots denied religious exemptions from the airline’s mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy in a violation of the Canadian Human Rights Act.
In a case of workplace religious discrimination, Air Canada placed the pilots on unpaid leave because they failed to meet the company’s bar for “sincere religious belief,” while other pilots who cleared it received more than six months of paid leave, the decision states.
The seven pilots, whose faith ranged from Catholic and Baptist to non-denominational, had pointed to various aspects of belief and Scripture to explain their vaccine aversion.
One submitted that introducing a novel substance with unknown long-term consequences “risked defiling what Scripture calls the temple of the Holy Spirit.”