United Airlines has allowed all unvaccinated employees in the US to return to work starting from next month. All employees who had opted to not get vaccinated due to medical or religious reasons can resume work the company says. Some employees who refused to get vaccinated were shifted to non customer facing roles for temporary adjustments and others were sent on unpaid leaves.
United Airlines was one of the first companies in the US to mandate vaccination of US employees. In fact, the company fired 200 employees who refused to get vaccinated and went against the company’s mandate policy.
In September last year, six employees filed a petition against the Airline accusing that they were rigorously interrogating employees who refused to get vaccinated on medical or religious grounds. Also, the petition accused United Airlines of forcefully sending employees on unpaid leaves who were unvaccinated. The petitioners asked the court to prevent the Airline from enforcing the vaccine mandate, for the time being, on staff members who request exemptions from the same.
The company has argued that they have imposed vaccine mandates for the safety of all staffers and customers.
As per the new norms, 200 employees who were fired will not be coming back and the new hires will be mandated to get vaccinated.
