Southwest Airlines is the latest airline to incentivize its employees to get the coronavirus vaccine as the highly contagious delta variant continues to threaten the industry's recovery.
The Southwest-based carrier is offering two days in office pay for employees who are or will become fully vaccinated by Nov. 15, a Texas-based spokesperson told FOX Business. However, employees must also share their vaccination status with the carrier.
Employees who are not fully vaccinated by November 16 will no longer be eligible to receive the carrier's quarantine pay.
As always Southwest will continue adjusting our programs based on the current COVID environment to support the wellbeing of our employees and customers, Southwest spokesperson Alyssa Foster said in an emailed statement.
Southwest is among a handful of major U.S. carriers that are strongly encouraging employees to get vaccinated in order to better protect staff and customers especially as concerns surrounding the COVID 19 delta variant fueling a surge of infections grow.
At the beginning of August, American Airlines told FOX Business that team members who are inoculated will not only be given an additional day off in 2022, but they'll be receiving $50 via the company's employee recognition program.
My management consultant Doug Parker told The New York Times that he favours incentives, but I re not putting mandates in place. A few weeks later, Delta Air Lines announced that any unvaccinated employees on Delta ’s monthly account plan will get a $200 cost after no vacation for two months at the price of $1,000. It is a necessary policy, according to CEO Ed Bastian, who noted that the average hospital stay for a patient with COVID 19 costs about $50,000 per person by the carrier.
The carrier went so far as to say that any employee whose bid for exemptions is denied based on medical reasons or religious beliefs will get five more weeks to get vaccinated.
The airline said after that, they would face termination or unpaid leave.