United Airlines is set to require its U.S. employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19 in an apparent first move for a domestic carrier.
As reported by CNBC, United Airlines will be mandating that its U.S. employees — a reported 67,000 people — get the COVID-19 vaccination. They must provide evidence that they got two doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, or one dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, five weeks after the vaccines are fully approved by government officials, or by October 25, whichever date comes first, per executives.
United added that it will allow for exceptions due to health or religious reasons. If employees don’t get vaccinated, they could lose their job.
This is reportedly a first action for a main carrier in the United States that might create an incentive for other airlines to do the same thing.
“We know some of you will disagree with this decision to require the vaccine for all United employees,” United CEO Scott Kirby and President Brett Hart said Friday in an employee note. “But, 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.”
In June, United Airlines said that it would begin making people who are newly hired by the company to provide proof of vaccination. Delta Airlines reportedly took a similar action in May.
Several other companies have made similar moves and will require workers to be fully vaccinated, especially before returning in person to offices in the coming months.
Among the companies mandating such a requirement are Netflix, who will require vaccinations for every member of the cast in U.S. productions, and the people who work on set with cast members.
As The Daily Wire reported, Disney will also require its workers to get vaccinated, saying in a statement to trade publications, “Vaccines are the best tool we all have to help control this global pandemic and protect our employees.”
Some companies made the requirement for employees who wish to return to work in the offices, such as Facebook and Google.
“As our offices reopen, we will be requiring anyone coming to work at any of our U.S. campuses to be vaccinated,” said Lori Goler of Facebook said in an emailed statement to NBC News. “How we implement this policy will depend on local conditions and regulations. We will have a process for those who cannot be vaccinated for medical or other reasons and will be evaluating our approach in other regions as the situation evolves. We continue to work with experts to ensure our return to office plans prioritize everyone’s health and safety.”
“Anyone coming to work on our campuses will need to be vaccinated. We’re rolling this policy out in the U.S. in the coming weeks and will expand to other regions in the coming months,” Google CEO Sundar Pichai wrote in a memo, per NBC News.
As the Daily Wire previously reported, “The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) said on May 28 that businesses can indeed require that their employees be vaccinated against COVID-19 without violating federal law.”
“But in the updated guidance, the EEOC said employers must make ‘reasonable accommodations’ for employees who don’t get vaccinated because of religious beliefs, pregnancy, or a disability. The agency also said that other federal laws, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and state and local laws may play a factor in what businesses can do.”
The EEOC added that businesses can offer incentives to workers to get vaccinated “as long as the incentives are not coercive.”
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Source: Dailywire
