Dear Fellow UWOSA Members,
Thank you to all our members who have already reached out to the UWOSA office with their questions and comments regarding Western’s updated COVID-19 Vaccination Policy.
The UWOSA Executive has been continuously monitoring the COVID-19 policies and protocols at Western throughout the pandemic, and has been meeting with our Union’s legal counsel regularly to obtain updated legal opinions about how reasonable and equitable the policies continue to be as the pandemic environment changes.
Western University has recently amended its COVID-19 Vaccination Policy to make a booster vaccination (third vaccine) mandatory for all staff, students, faculty and visitors. (Policy 3.1.1 – COVID-19 Vaccination Policy: mapp311_covid19.pdf (uwo.ca).
Whether you are vaccinated, have an exemption and are in the testing program, or have been placed on an unpaid leave of absence due to non-compliance – the UWOSA Executive WANTS TO HEAR FROM YOU!
UWOSA is committed to supporting UWOSA members, both individually and collectively, to ensure your rights are upheld, to ensure a safe and healthy working environment is maintained, and that Western’s policies are implemented reasonably and equitably.
If you have not already done so, please also review Western’s procedures for visitors and exemptions:
- Accommodation Procedure: https://www.uwo.ca/univsec/pdf/policies_procedures/section3/mapp311_accommodation_procedure.pdf
- Visitor on Campus Procedure: https://www.uwo.ca/univsec/pdf/policies_procedures/section3/mapp311_procedure_visitors.pdf
Again, in light of this recent update, the UWOSA Executive wants your questions, comments and feedback, which will help us support you and our collective.
Please send your comments or questions regarding the updated policy to info@uwosa.ca by 5:00 pm Wednesday, August 31st. This is a confidential email address that only goes to the President, Vice President, and Chief Steward. We will not provide any names in our communications back to Western sharing the concerns of our members. UWOSA does not judge, so there is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ answer as we support all of our members.
We will be sure to provide another update to our membership as soon as we have more information from our legal counsel and have reviewed all of our members responses.
Please don’t hesitate to reach out to info@uwosa.ca should you require union support during this time. Due to the increase of emails and phone calls received, there may be a delay in our response, while we continue to gather information.
UWOSA gently reminds you of the supports and resources currently available: family physician, Employee Well-Being, Living Well at Western, and EFAP (Life Works (formerly Morneau Sheppel) 24/7: 844-880-9142 or lifeworks.com).
Thank you in advance for your patience; we will respond.
In Solidarity,
Nikki Grozelle, Jen Heidenheim, Meg Perinpanayagam, Lori Johnson, Natalie Samuel, Cleusa De Oliveira and Emericks Rivas
UWOSA Executive Committee
