United Is the First Major Airline Requiring Vaccines for All Employees

United Airlines will be the primary main US airline to require its US-based staff—all 67,000 of them—to get vaccinated towards COVID-19. In a memo despatched to staff on Friday describing the brand new mandate, United CEO Scott Kirby and President Brett Hart defined that whereas some staff “will disagree with this decision,” finally it’s simply… the proper factor to do.

“This fall, every US-based United employee will be required to receive a COVID-19 vaccine and upload their vaccination record to Flying Together,” United wrote, referring to the employee login portal utilized by individuals working for the airline. “We have no greater responsibility to you and your colleagues than to ensure your safety when you’re at work, and the facts are crystal clear: everyone is safer when everyone is vaccinated.”

According to the memo, every of those staff will be required to log photos of their vaccine playing cards displaying that they’ve acquired a full spherical of the Pfizer, Moderna, or Johnson & Johnson vaccine no later than October twenty fifth if the drug stays below emergency authorization. If the Food and Drug Administration formally authorizes any vaccine earlier than that October deadline, then these staff can have 5 weeks after the FDA’s approval to get vaccinated.

Employees who’re already vaxxed—and those who add their docs earlier than the aforementioned deadline—will get an additional day of pay as a perk. Though this profit doesn’t apply to pilots and flight attendants, who’ve already gotten union-negotiated comps for importing their very own information, the memo notes.

United additionally let staff know that over the hellish course of the pandemic, Kirby had despatched “dozens” of condolences letters to the members of the family of United staffers who had died from COVID-19. “We’re determined to do everything we can to try to keep another United family from receiving that letter,” the memo went on. “Thank you for all you continue to do to take care of our customers and one another.”

As the Wall Street Journal points out, Kirby had been fairly vocal about wanting his workforce vaccinated for some time now, however famous in an interview this previous January that the mandate could be arduous to implement if different airliners weren’t on board. Previously, the closest United got here to implementing this sort of rule is requiring that every one new staff be vaccinated since June of this yr, a rule that Delta Airlines has additionally put into place.