Dozens of city workers will be offered their jobs back following termination nearly one year ago.
84 workers in total were terminated last January for either refusing to get vaccinated against COVID-19, or refusing to indicate their vaccine status.
According to CTV Windsor, in December, the city reached out to 67 staff members, including 21 full-time workers to speak with their unions about employees returning to the workplace.
So far, of those asked to return, 18 have accepted. Five are in active discussions and four have declined.
Dave Petten, CUPE Local 543 President for City of Windsor Inside Workers, says the union wasn't part of the process to reinstate those who were terminated, however they were able to connect the city with those who did lose their jobs.
He says in November 2022, council passed a resolution to revoke the vaccine mandate, however he's unsure why it took so long for that to be lifted when COVID-19 restrictions ended months ago.
"We believe that this particular policy has been long outdated and the efficacy of the policy has long run its course. And so, as a union we expected that the city would have made this offer much sooner than what they ended up doing. We're a little bit curious about how long its taken as well."
He says not everyone who was terminated was a part of the union, however those that were, majority of them were offered to return to work.
"For the majority of the folks that are outstanding for us, that's about 60 members at this point, it's my understanding that the majority of those will be offered to be rehired. But, we do have a few members that were not being re-offered."
He says those who were offered to come back are excited despite how long it took.
"From the members that I've been engaging with, I think that a number of them are excited to be able to return to service and serve the public as they did before. And even though it's been a year long at this point, I think that there's a number of them that are excited to come back and I think that bodes well for the city because they were great workers."
Those in full-time positions were offered the rehire first, while those who were part-time and the Recreation staff were offered at a later date and so they have until January 11 to make a final decision about returning.
Petten adds that there were some workers who have not been asked to return to the positions they once held for various reasons.
-with files from CTV Windsor