United Airlines said Tuesday that 593 of its employees are facing termination for failing to comply with its Covid-19 vaccination policy, one of the strictest mandates for inoculation from a U.S. company.
More than 96% of United’s 67,000-person U.S. workforce complied with the vaccine requirement. The deadline to upload proof of inoculation, or the first shot if receiving a two-dose vaccine, was late Monday.
Roughly 2,000 United employees sought exemptions from the mandate, which the airline announced this summer, for religious or medical reasons. The Chicago-based airline had said staff to whom it grants such exemptions will be placed on temporary unpaid leave.
“And we know for some, that decision was a reluctant one. But there’s no doubt in our minds that some of you will have avoided a future hospital stay — or even death — because you got vaccinated,” United’s CEO, Scott Kirby, and the company’s president, Brett Hart, told employees in a note Tuesday.
Unvaccinated employees without exemptions face termination, though that process could take weeks. “This was an incredibly difficult decision but keeping our team safe has always been our first priority,” United’s Kirby and Hart said. Staff that didn’t upload a proof of vaccine spanned various work groups, such as pilots, flight attendants and mechanics, a spokesman said, declining to provide more detail.
However, a United spokesman said the company is willing to work with some unvaccinated employees during the termination process if they change their mind about getting inoculated. The carrier isn’t expecting operational problems because of terminations, the spokesman added.
The number of flight attendants who hadn’t sent in their vaccination cards and hadn’t received an exemption fell by about half from the weekend to Monday and fell further to fewer than 100 on Tuesday, according to the Association of Flight Attendants, which represents the carrier’s roughly 23,000 cabin crew members.
Employees fired for not getting vaccinated would be terminated on the grounds of violating a company safety policy, which could make them ineligible for unemployment benefits.