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. The decision states that Air Canada violated the Canadian Human Rights Act when it 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.
Air Canada had required religious objectors to submit a letter from a religious leader explaining why they could not be vaccinated.
However, arbitrator James Hayes states that the seven Christian pilots should have been granted exemptions despite presenting no letters, given their requests were “grounded in sincere religious conviction” and that proof from an authority should not be required.
“An ‘expert’ or an authority on religious law is not the surrogate for an individual’s affirmation of what his or her religious beliefs are. Religious belief is intensely personal and can easily vary from one individual to another,” Hayes wrote, quoting a 2022 arbitration decision on vaccine mandates.
“All of the grievors testified honestly and the substantive nexus between their religious beliefs and objections to the employer mandatory vaccination policy was manifest.”
The ruling orders back pay for a period spanning late October 2021 to early May 2022, after which all exempted pilots were placed on unpaid leave with benefits.
Air Canada had argued that it granted spiritual accommodations when the request demonstrated a sincere religious belief and a clear link between that belief and an inability to be vaccinated.
The Montreal-based company stated that requests based strictly on personal preference or “the fear that COVID-19 vaccines may alter DNA” – or other scientifically unsound concerns – would be grounds for denial.
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.”
Another found the answer in conscience and prayer: “God was telling me this is not honest or true, and that taking the vaccine would be wrong for me.”
Handed down on March 3, the ruling directs Air Canada to compensate the pilots – all members of the Air Line Pilots Association, which brought the case – for their lost income within 60 days.
The exemptions marked one more hurdle for airlines as COVID-19 battered the travel industry amid pandemic-related travel bans that grounded flights across the globe.
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