As part of policy change, Alaska Air requires COVID-19 vaccine for its employees

Updated: 1 hour ago Posted: 1 hour ago

SEATTLE – Alaska Air Group told its 22,000 employees on Thursday evening that they would be required to be vaccinated against COVID-19, with a few exceptions – a change from policy set last month that did not encourage and only rewarded employees who were vaccinated.

New York-based JetBlue also said it was implementing a similar policy, now joining United Airlines, which was the first major U.S. carrier to mandate vaccination on all its employees.

In an email to all employees of Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air, the Seattle-based company said that, in accordance with the White House executive order that requires all federal contractors to vaccinate their workers, ” All employees will now need to be fully immunized or approved for reasonable accommodation.

This replaces the policy Alaska announced last month, which paid $ 200 to vaccinated employees and required regular testing for others. At the time, Alaska said 75% of its employees had already been vaccinated.

A note from Andy Schneider, senior vice president of personnel for Alaska, said that President Joe Biden’s executive order applies to subsidiaries of Alaska Air as well as certain contractors.

“After careful consideration of this order, we have determined that the employees of Alaska, Horizon and McGee (including certain contractors and suppliers) fall under this federal vaccine mandate due to our important work for the federal government, alongside other major US airlines. This policy will replace our company’s vaccination or testing policy that we announced earlier this month, ”Schneider told employees in the email.

Alaska has said the deadline for employees to be fully immunized could be as early as Dec. 8, and it has established timelines for getting each of the available vaccines in order to meet that deadline.

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The airline is extending its $ 200 offer to newly vaccinated employees until December 1. Employees who have already provided proof of vaccination or have done so by the original October 15 deadline will receive the $ 200 payment on their first paycheck in November.

Alaska said employees can request “reasonable accommodation for sincere religious beliefs or a health problem that prevents them from getting the vaccine on Dec. 1.”

Employees who are granted a religious or medical exemption “may be subject to additional protocols such as weekly testing, continuous masking and social distancing, changed work schedules or locations, start dates delayed training courses, inability to attend events in person or unpaid time off, ”the email from Schneider said.

JetBlue spokesperson Derek Dombrowski said via email that the New York-based carrier “will fully comply with the federal vaccine mandate for federal contractors and we have communicated this vaccine requirement to our members of the public. ‘crew”.

United Airlines announced in August that it would require employees to be vaccinated by Monday of this week or face layoffs.

United said on Tuesday that while almost all of its 67,000 employees had been vaccinated, it had started the process of firing 593 employees because they had not been vaccinated or had not received exemptions. . On Thursday, the company said the number of people threatened with termination had fallen to 320.