BARRIE, ONT. The Simcoe Muskoka health unit says only three residents at Roberta Place long-term care home in Barrie, Ont., have not contracted COVID-19 amid an outbreak that has claimed 27 lives and infected 124 residents and 81 staff members. The news comes as the health unit reports two more deaths on Friday. Additionally, there are nine new infections listed in the past 24 hours, two residents and seven staff members. Meanwhile, there are concerns surrounding staffing. On Friday, Ontario director of the Christian Labour Association of Canada (CLAC) Ian Dewaard says these are trying times for the staff. They re very tired. They re obviously quite scared. This came on the facility very quickly, Dewaard says.
In
Christian Labour Association of Canada v. Caressant Care
Nursing & Retirement Homes (D. Randall), a union filed a
group grievance on behalf of a number of its members working at an
Ontario retirement home to challenge the reasonableness of a policy
imposing bi-weekly COVID testing on all staff. In a December 9,
2020 decision, the arbitrator dismissed the
grievance on the basis that the policy is reasonable when the
privacy intrusion is weighed against the objective of preventing
the spread of COVID in the retirement home.
Background
Residents of the retirement home live independently with minimal
to moderate support. There were no positive cases of COVID
In
Christian Labour Association of Canada v. Caressant Care Nursing & Retirement Homes (D. Randall), a union filed a group grievance on behalf of a number of its members working at an Ontario retirement home to challenge the reasonableness of a policy imposing bi-weekly COVID testing on all staff. In a December 9, 2020 decision, the arbitrator dismissed the grievance on the basis that the policy is reasonable when the privacy intrusion is weighed against the objective of preventing the spread of COVID in the retirement home.
Background
Residents of the retirement home live independently with minimal to moderate support. There were no positive cases of COVID identified among staff, management or residents. The retirement home advised staff that bi-weekly COVID testing and proof of testing would be mandatory. The testing policy provided, in part: