Job Loss From Feds’ Vaccine Mandate Being Fought in Polish Court

The federal government suspended its vaccine requirement to work in the public service in June 2022 but is nonetheless facing legal action over the measure at home and also abroad, with a former employee of the Canadian embassy in Poland seeking compensation over how she was treated.

“The vaccine mandate was truly unfortunate for Canadians but of no relevance whatsoever for Polish staff of the Embassy,” Karolina Janiak told The Epoch Times in an interview.

“Any actions resulting from it towards Polish citizens like myself are illegal, and that is why I went to court.”

Janiak had been working as locally-engaged staff at the embassy in Warsaw since 2005, with her last role as trade commissioner.

The Liberal government imposed the vaccine mandate on federally-regulated workplaces in October 2021, which included diplomatic missions, but Janiak sought a medical exemption to avoid the injections.

Before she was able to secure one she was put on leave without pay in December 2021 and then resigned in February 2022 in order to secure new employment.

“Being awarded and praised for years for my service and afterwards being treated like that and coming close to my fifties is an earthquake,” she said. “Being a single mom with a mortgage and with inflation now… I had to redesign myself.”

The Epoch Times has reviewed Janiak’s non-public court filings as well as internal communications between her and her Global Affairs Canada (GAC) superiors, and between the parties’ respective lawyers.

GAC was also contacted for comment but didn’t reply before publication time.

The claim filed by Janiak in April 2022 with the District Court for Warsaw-Śródmieście argues that under Polish law employers cannot mandate vaccination against COVID-19 and that they cannot unilaterally place employees on leave without pay.

Diplomatic missions operate under the Vienna Convention, which grants a set of immunities to the foreign country, but the claim asserts that locally-engaged staff are protected by domestic labour laws.

Janiak is requesting approximately $40,000 in compensation plus interest.

She says the embassy has no immunity in matters of labour relations and could be sentenced by the court, but it would have immunity on the execution of the verdict and hence could refuse to provide compensation.

Karolina Janiak (right) with Canadian film director Patricia Chica at the American Film Festival in Wrocław, Poland, in November 2021. (Courtesy of Karolina Janiak)

‘Universal Nature’

The Canadian government’s position is that Janiak is responsible for her lost job due to her not following a policy that needs to be universally applied.

“Your failure to abide by the Policy and the resulting decision by the Embassy to place you on administrative leave are grounds entirely attributable to you,” wrote the government’s attorney Agnieszka Godusławska in a March 2022 letter.

She wrote that the policy principles established by the government have a “universal nature and are binding upon all mission staff in all countries without exception.”

Godusławska said the sole purpose of applying this policy is to protect the health and life of embassy staff, guests, and clients.

The belief that mandatory vaccination would fulfill this purpose was also expressed by then Canadian Ambassador to Poland, Leslie Scanlon, when informing Janiak she was being placed on leave without pay from Dec. 14, 2021.

“While it is clear that vaccines are the best way to bring this pandemic to an end, I appreciate that not everyone can get vaccinated. This is exactly why the Policy contains an accommodation clause,” wrote Scanlon.

Janiak had told her supervisor, Counsellor Francis Dorsemaine, of repeated attempts to secure a medical exemption due to her health concerns surrounding COVID-19 vaccination, highlighting in a Dec. 9 email seven different medical appointments from October to December 2021, and notifying him of an upcoming series of examinations starting on Jan. 4.

Dorsemaine had told her in a previous email that Dec. 9 was a “hard deadline” for submitting the paperwork to request a medical exemption.

The government filed its response to the claim in November, with Janiak filing a reply in mid-December. Janiak says the next step will either be a court hearing or a judge will issue a default judgment.

Challenge in Canada

Legal challenges against the federal workforce vaccine mandate are also underway in Canada.

A group of Quebec-based public servants known as “Fonctionnaires unis” had its first hearing on Nov. 28 with further hearings not yet scheduled to take place in 2023.

The trial is being held at the Federal Public Sector Labour Relations Board in Ottawa.

Bernard Desgagné, the group’s coordinator, told The Epoch Times he wasn’t aware of locally-engaged staff abroad challenging the mandate, but that some GAC employees are involved in the lawsuit.