United Airlines to suspend 593 employees who refuse to take COVID vaccine

World: Officials of United Airlines has announced that the company is suspending 593 employees who refused to comply with the requirement of getting vaccinated with COVID-19 jabs.

Besides this, another 2,000 employees have also been requested to present a medical or religious exemption to the vaccine requirement.

The officials further stated that it was happy with the overall impact of the policy. In the month of early August, United announced that all US employees would be required to receive the COVID-19 vaccine and had to upload their vaccine cards into the company’s system.

As per to the memo issued to the employees by the United Chief Executive Scott Kirby and President Brett Hart, over 99 per cent of the remaining US staff complied with the requirement.

In addition, the airline is working on its policies for employees who have requested exemptions, citing a pending court case on the matter.

The memo further cited that, “This is a historic achievement for our airline and of our employees as well as for the customers and communities we serve.”

Following the statement, the memo noted that “Our rationale for requiring the vaccine for all United’s US-based employees was simple –- to keep our people safe –- and the truth is this: everybody is safer when everyone is vaccinated, and vaccine demands work.”

“For the less than one per cent of the people who decided to not get vaccinated, we will, unfortunately, begin the process of separation from the airline per our policy. This was a tough decision, but keeping our team’s safety at foremost has always been our first priority,” it added.

The officials of the airline have further stated that they would abide by the requirements of agreements with unions as far as employee dismissals for people who refused to take the doses of the COVID-19 vaccines.