Vaccine Mandate Lawsuit: United Airlines Workers Sue Over COVID Shot Policy

A class-action lawsuit has been filed against United Airlines (UAL) over its COVID vaccine mandate that it has implemented for all of its employees.

The lawsuit, filed by six employees, claims that United failed to authorize COVID vaccination accommodation requests and only offered six years of unpaid leave for those workers that opted not to get the shot, Fox News reported.

United is requiring all employees to be vaccinated by Sept. 27 unless a medical or religious exemption is approved by the airline. But the plaintiffs in the case contend that the airline is not granting any accommodations for medical or religious reasons.

Mark Paoletta, a partner at Schaerr-Jaffe, the law firm representing the plaintiffs, told Fox News, “We filed this lawsuit to protect the rights of honest, hardworking United Airlines employees who have religious or medical reasons not to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.

“United has refused to grant any accommodations and these employees are scared by United’s draconian mandate that forces them to either get the vaccine or lose their job. That’s unacceptable in America,” he added.

Earlier this month, United Vice President of Human Resources Kirk Limacher said in a memo to employees obtained by the Washington Post that those who were not vaccinated by the deadline would be placed on indefinite unpaid leave starting on Oct. 2.

He continued in the memo, “Given the dire statistics ... we can no longer allow unvaccinated people back into the workplace until we better understand how they might interact with our customers and their vaccinated coworkers.”

Lawyers claim that United is violating the Civil Rights Act and must make reasonable accommodations for all workers, including face masks and testing for unvaccinated employees, Fox News said.

“The fact is that some people have sincere religious objections to the COVID-19 vaccine, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 requires employers to respect and accommodate those beliefs. United has failed to do this,” Paoletta told the news outlet.

A United spokesperson told Fox News that “excluding the small number of people who have sought an exemption, more than 97% of our U.S. employees are vaccinated. We’ve been encouraged by the overwhelmingly positive response from employees across all work groups since we announced the policy last month. We’re reviewing this complaint in greater detail but at this point we think it’s without merit.”

Schaerr-Jaffe believes the class-action case against United will be made up of about 2,000 employees, Fox News reported. The plaintiffs are asking for a temporary restraining order against the airline to stop it from putting employees on six years of unpaid leave.

As of Wednesday at 12:54 p.m. ET, shares of United Airlines were trading at $45.58, up $1.13, or 2.54%.