Southwest Airlines backs off: no suspension without salary for unvaccinated staff
Whoever lasts it wins it. Southwest Airlines is refraining from putting unpaid employees on unvaccinated leave pending their exemption requests being reviewed, all contained in a company statement.
Under President Joe Biden's requirement for US federal services, employees should be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 by December 8, unless they have received a medical or religious exemption.
Southwest initially said employees who didn't meet the requirement by the deadline would be placed on unpaid leave, but they recently changed their minds, according to CNBC . In a note to staff, airline officials said on Friday that employees will continue to be paid, but will need to follow protective mask and distancing guidelines even if their waiver claims are pending.
"This is a change from what was previously disclosed," said senior vice president of operations and hospitality, Steve Goldberg, and vice president and chief people officer, Julie Weber. "We initially communicated that these employees would be put on unpaid leave and this is no longer the case."
CNBC said it looked into the note. If a worker's request is denied, Southwest said it will continue to work with the employee "as we coordinate with them to meet requirements (vaccine or valid housing)." The employee would also have the opportunity to re-apply for an exemption if they have new information that they want the company to consider. So, in the end, no one will be fired or put on unpaid leave, but a solution will be found. Eventually the strike threat worked.
Recall that, among other things, Southwest is based in Dallas, and in Texas it is forbidden to force workers to get vaccinated. Maybe someone has noticed!
Thanks to our Telegram channel you can stay updated on the publication of new articles of Economic Scenarios.
The article Southwest airlines backs off: no suspension without salary for unvaccinated staff comes from ScenariEconomici.it .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/southwest-fa-marcia-indietro-niente-sospensione-senza-stipendio-per-il-personale-non-vaccinato/ on Wed, 20 Oct 2021 07:00:07 +0000.