American Airlines Flight 718, the first commercial Boeing 737 MAX flight in the United States since regulators withdrew from the ground for 20 months in November, takes off from Miami, Florida, on December 29, 2020.
Marco Bello | Reuters
American Airlines and Alaska Airlines will no longer cover the Covid-19 quarantine time for employees who are not vaccinated against the virus, the latest impetus for staff inoculation.
“In the future, since there is an FDA-approved vaccine, only pandemic permission will be offered to fully vaccinated team members and they provide us with their vaccination card,” American said in a staff note. Thursday. The change begins on October 1 and unvaccinated workers will have to use time off due to illness or sick leave if they miss work due to Covid.
A similar change to Alaska Airlines went into effect on August 30th.
The two airlines failed to institute a vaccination mandate, like the one United Airlines announced last month, and policy changes show divergent tactics among carriers to encourage workers to get vaccinated.
Alaska Airlines said Thursday it would pay employees $ 200 if they disclose proof of vaccination against Covid-19 before Oct. 15 and said those who do not will be considered unvaccinated. Unvaccinated employees will be required to wear masks at work at all times and attend a “compulsory vaccine education program.”
Southwest Airlines, which also does not require employee vaccination, said it would restore paid or paid time to workers who had to quarantine due to a Covid-19 infection or to be in close contact with someone who tested positive. , retroactive to June 16th. The company had suspended this program in mid-June, alleging a drop in Covid cases and a high availability of vaccines.
Earlier this week, the Southwest pilots’ union sued the airline, alleging that a number of Covid-related policies, including the end of free time for exposure or infection, required negotiation with the union.
“With COVID-19 cases continuing to increase, due to the Delta variant, Southwest is taking an additional step to support our employees by implementing a quarantined compensation program,” spokeswoman Brandy King said. The new policy will restore dead time balances for staff “who previously and responsibly quarantined company-related incidents over the summer as cases increased in the general population across the country.”
Delta Air Lines said last week that it will impose a $ 200 monthly surcharge on employees covered by the company’s health insurance on Nov. 1 if they are not vaccinated. The Atlanta-based carrier is