Many retail workers in Ontario now qualify for vaccinations

Starting today, all Ontario frontline retail workers who cannot work from home will have the ability to register for vaccinations under either Group One and Group Two classifications.

Each Ontario public health unit runs its own booking system for vaccinations. As a way to direct all members and their employees, RCC encourages employers to share Ontario’s Vaccine Booking Tool.  While this tool will not allow the employee to book a vaccination appointment, it will provide the employee with a phone number for their health unit as well as a web link to the health unit’s vaccination registration page (under the “additional resources” section) where employees can complete the online registration tool for their individual health unit.

While most (but not all) health units are operating on an ‘honour system’ for vaccinating essential workers in Group One and Group Two, members should plan to issue a short letter to employees indicating proof of employment along with an attestation that the employee cannot work from home, rendering them eligible under either Group One (DC workers) or Group Two (retail workers).

As background, retail distribution centre workers are eligible under the following clause:

• Group One – Essential workers in a food manufacturing and/or distribution centre who cannot work from home.

Retail employees working in a store, either in an essential retail setting or in a non-essential retail setting are eligible under the following clause:

• Group Two – Essential workers who cannot work from home, including grocery, foodbank, non-clinical pharmacy workers, restaurant, LCBO workers, wholesalers and general goods.
  • The term ‘general goods’ is a broad one. RCC understands this to include non-essential retail employees who continue to attend the workplace to operate curbside sales. For further clarity, it is RCC’s understanding that employees who are currently laid-off, or on the IDEL leave do not meet this definition.
  • RCC is working with the Solicitor General’s office to understand how expanded eligibility interacts with a potential broader reopening (likely, regionally) of retail on May 20, 2021 as retail employees come off lay-offs and IDEL leave.