If not vaccinated, Delta Air Lines will charge employees of the company’s health plan a monthly fee of $200 Coronavirus disease, The airline’s executives stated that this policy is necessary because the average hospitalization cost for the virus is $50,000.
CEO Ed Bastian said that all employees hospitalized with the virus in recent weeks have not been fully vaccinated.
The airline said on Wednesday that it will also stop providing wage protection to unvaccinated workers infected with COVID-19 on September 30, and will require unvaccinated workers to undergo weekly tests starting on September 12. Delta Air Lines will bear the cost. They must wear masks in all indoor company environments.
Delta Airlines has not matched United Airlines, and United Airlines will require employees to be vaccinated from September 27, otherwise they will face dismissal. However, the $200 monthly surcharge starting in November may have the same effect.
“This surcharge is necessary to resolve the financial risks to our company from the decision not to vaccinate,” Bastian said in a memo to employees.
A Delta Air Lines spokesperson said that the surcharge only applies to employees who have not been vaccinated and will not be levied on their spouses or family members.
Delta Air Lines is self-insurance and sets premiums for its plans, which are managed by UnitedHealthcare. A spokesperson for the company once said that the average hospitalization cost was $40,000, which contradicted the figure used by Bastian in the memo. Delta Air Lines later stated that both figures reflect the range of the average cost.
Bastian said that 75% of Delta’s employees were vaccinated, up from 72% in mid-July. He said that the aggressiveness of the main strain of the virus “means that we need to get more people vaccinated and get as close to 100% as possible.”
“I know some of you may take a wait-and-see attitude or wait for (Food and Drug Administration) full approval,” he told employees. “With the announcement this week that the FDA has fully approved the Pfizer vaccine, now is the time for you to get the vaccine.”
A growing number of companies, including Chevron and the drugstore chain CVS, announced that they will require workers to be vaccinated after the FDA makes a decision on Monday.
Some American airlines require employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Should Canada follow up?
United Airlines and Delta Airlines have required new employees to be vaccinated. Two smaller airlines, Hawaiian and Frontier, said they will require vaccinations or regular testing of existing employees. Other major US airlines, including American Airlines and Southwest Airlines, said on Wednesday that they encourage employees to be vaccinated, but they do not require it.
Delta’s weekly testing requirements for unvaccinated employees will begin on September 12, and the requirement for unvaccinated employees to wear masks indoors will take effect immediately.
Driven by the currently dominant virus delta variant, the number of newly reported COVID-19 cases in the United States has exceeded 150,000 cases per day, the highest level since late January. The growth rate has slowed nationwide, but this variant may overwhelm emergency rooms in parts of the country.
On Tuesday, Brian Kemp, the governor of Georgia, where Delta Air Lines is located, ordered members of the National Guard to visit 20 hospitals across the state to help deal with a surge above the national average.
Southwest Airlines, Spirit, and Frontier attribute the increase in delta variants to the slowdown in customer bookings, while air travel in the United States is still down by more than 20% from 2019 before the pandemic.
In the information to employees, Bastian referred to this rapidly spreading virus strain as B.1.617.2, and scientists used it to determine its pedigree. Delta CEO’s efforts to avoid the more widely known “delta variant” have not been overlooked, and B.1.617.2 began to become popular on Twitter on Wednesday.
© 2021 Canadian Press
