Unvaccinated Staff Of American, Alaska Air Will No Longer Receive Pay Protection If They Contract COVID-19

Unvaccinated American Airlines and Alaska Airlines employees will no longer be covered by the companies’ pay protection program if they contract COVID-19 and have to quarantine.

The announcement is the latest push to get staff inoculated, CNBC reported.

“Going forward, given there is an FDA-approved vaccine, pandemic leave will only be offered to team members who are fully vaccinated and who provide their vaccination card to us,” American wrote in a staff memo sent out Thursday.

The change will begin on Oct. 1, and unvaccinated staff will have to use their sick time or medical leave if they miss work due to COVID-19. Alaska Airlines adopted a similar policy, which went into effect on Aug. 30.

Both airlines decided not to have a vaccine mandate, unlike United Airlines. However, the companies’ policy changes are a different tactic used to encourage workers to get vaccinated.

Alaska Airlines is offering its employees $200 if they show proof of COVID-19 vaccination by Oct. 15. For those that do not, the company will assume they are unvaccinated and will have to wear masks at all times while working. Unvaccinated employees will also have to attend a “mandatory vaccine education program.”

Southwest Airlines is another airline that isn’t requiring employees to be vaccinated. It announced that the company would restore pay or paid time off to employees who had to quarantine, retroactive to June 16.

However, it has since discontinued that program in mid-June due to the drop in COVID cases and vaccine availability.

“With COVID-19 cases continuing to rise, due to the Delta variant, Southwest is taking an additional step to support our Employees by implementing a Quarantine Pay Program,” said spokeswoman Brandy King. The new policy will restore time-off balances for staff “who previously, and responsibly, quarantined for Company-related incidents over the summer as cases spiked in the general population across the country.”

Delta Airlines announced last week that employees who aren’t vaccinated would receive a $200 monthly surcharge for company health insurance starting Nov. 1. The company has also decided to stop pay protection for its unvaccinated employees if they are out of work due to a COVID infection.