(Headline USA) United Airlines announced this week that it will allow unvaccinated employees to return to work starting March 28.
United was the first major airline to force its employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Those who refused were fired, and those who requested exemptions were forced to take unpaid leave.
The latter group filed a lawsuit against United, alleging unfair discrimination. But United asked a federal appeals court to drop the case this week, informing the court that it plans to allow those employees to return to work this month.
“We plan to welcome back those employees who have been out on an approved (accommodation) to their normal positions starting” March 28, United officials said in a memo, according to the Wall Street Journal.
United claimed in a filing on Thursday that its decision to drop its vaccine restrictions was “due to substantial changes in the scope and severity of the pandemic as well as the guidance of public health authorities.”
However, United added in its memo to employees that “if another variant emerges or the COVID trends suddenly reverse course, we will reevaluate he appropriate safety protocols at that time.”
The company’s decision to put exempt, unvaccinated employees on unpaid leave was one of the strictest in the nation.
“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,” United claimed at the time.
Roger Gannam, assistant vice president of legal affairs at Liberty Counsel, said the policy was an attempt by United to make it financially unfeasible for employees to live with a vaccine exemption.
“It certainly appears to be a bullying tactic and a continuation of United’s policy of making a religious exemption as difficult as possible,” he told the Epoch Times.
