Your Rights at Work: COVID-19

How your three rights apply to your workplace during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Know

Workers have the right to know about the health and safety hazards to which they may be exposed. Employers must inform workers of any reasonably anticipated contact, mechanisms of transmission, work activities that may lead to exposure, and controls to eliminate or mitigate exposure. They must also provide training and education on the workplace’s exposure control plan.

Participate

Workers continue to have a right to participate, including in their workplace’s response to the COVID-19 outbreak.This right includes participation on joint health and safety committees, or the worker health and safety representative position(s), in the development of the workplace’s exposure control plan, in the investigation of symptoms related to occupational exposure, and in workplace evaluations for determining appropriate personal protective equipment.

Refuse

Workers must not go to work if they are experiencing COVID-19-like symptoms, if they have recently travelled internationally, or if a member of their household has been exposed to COVID-19. Workers must also continue to refuse conditions that pose an undue hazard to themselves or any other person. It is important to note that the process for refusing unsafe work remains in effect, and workers must exhaust the process in its entirety (unless otherwise specified in your collective agreement)

Process for refusing unnecessarily unsafe work.

COVID-19 Dos

  • Wash your hands regularly for 20 seconds, with soap and water or alcohol-based hand rub
  • Cover your nose and mouth with a disposable tissue or flexed elbow when you cough or sneeze
  • Avoid close contact (2 meters or 6 feet) with people
  • Stay home and self-isolate from others in the household if you feel unwell; Call 811 and self report

COVID-19 Don'ts

  • Touch your eyes, nose, or mouth if your hands are not clean
  • Go to work or out in public if you are experiencing symptoms

COVID-19 Symptoms

  • Fever
  • Cough
  • Fatigue
  • Difficulty Breathing (extreme cases)

For more information