United Airlines said Tuesday it intends to lay off about 600 employees who have not met the company’s COVID-19 vaccination requirement.
The air carrier estimated the group of potential dismissals accounted for less than one percent of its entire workforce, revealing the other 99% of workers had met the Sept. 27 deadline. Six of United Airlines’ employee employees sued last week over that requirement.
“This was an incredibly difficult decision but keeping our team safe has always been our first priority,” said the CEO in a memo delivered to employees Tuesday. “We’ll unfortunately begin the process of separation from the airline per our policy.”
Around three percent—or 2,000—of the airline’s employees submitted religious and medical exemptions.
“Our rationale for requiring the vaccine for all United’s U.S.-based employees was simple — to keep our people safe — and the truth is this: everyone is safer when everyone is vaccinated, and vaccine requirements work.”
United claimed applications for openings had increased since it announced the COVID-19 vaccine mandate in August—the first airline to do so.
Frontier and Hawaiian Airlines also require employees to be vaccinated. In addition, Southwest and American encourage employees to get the shot, while Delta said it would penalize unvaccinated employees $200 a month.
Nearly one-third of pilots in the U.S. are not vaccinated, the Allied Pilots Association reported. The union warned vaccine mandates would lead to a severe pilot shortage that hampers the holiday travel season into next year, NPR reported.
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