Identify which health and safety legislation applies to this situation

COVID-19 is a coronavirus that emerged in late 2019 and led to a pandemic that has claimed millions of lives. It has severe respiratory symptoms and can cause death in humans, similar to but not the same as the SARS virus. You are the HR Director of a large international airline in Canada with flights to many destinations. During Summer 2020, at the peak of the pandemic, a group of your flight attendants refused to work on flights, as they believe that the closed circulatory air system of the airplanes increases the chances of getting the virus and becoming ill.

a.       Identify which health and safety legislation applies to this situation and explain whether flight attendants can refuse to work in this situation?

b.      Briefly describe the procedures you will follow and the actions you will take after being notified of the flight attendants’ refusal to work.

c.       Would you have given different answers to part a of this question if those refusing work were workers in a long-term care facility in Brampton, Ontario, and were concerned about the outbreak of COVID-19 as several of the elderly residents in the facility had tested positive for the coronavirus? Explain.