Anxious about COVID-19 and returning to work? Here’s what you need to know (CBC News)

May 6, 2020

From CBC News – With more businesses reopening, some employees are anxious about going back to work in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, worried their health could be at risk and wondering if they have any rights not to return.

In southern Alberta, for example, the union for workers at the meat processing plant Cargill have been trying to stop its reopening, saying that the vast majority of employees fear returning. (Nearly half of the company’s 2,000 staff have tested positive for COVID-19.)

Lior Samfiru, a Toronto-based employment and labour lawyer, said the most common question workers are asking him is whether they have to return to their workplaces if they’re concerned about being infected. Employers are also asking him what they should do if an employee doesn’t want to return.

Here’s what you need to know about your employment obligations if called back to work and any recourse you may have.