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Delta Airlines employees were met with a serious ultimatum. In a memo released on August 24, the company’s CEO Ed Bastian announced that unvaccinated employees would face health care premium hikes if they failed to become inoculated against the virus. Bastian warned that the company would hit workers with a $200 monthly surcharge beginning Nov. 1.
“The average hospital stay for COVID-19 has cost Delta $50,000 per person,” Bastian wrote in the company-wide statement, citing that the steep premiums would help to cover the cost of Delta workers who become hospitalized from the dangerous virus.
“In recent weeks since the rise of the B.1.617.2 variant, all Delta employees who have been hospitalized with COVID were not fully vaccinated,” Bastian explained.
In addition, unvaccinated employees will now be mandated to wear masks indoors at all times beginning on Sept.12. They will also be required to undergo weekly COVID tests. Delta’s COVID pay protection program will no longer be available to unvaccinated employees if they do choose to remain uninoculated.
“Protecting yourself, your colleagues, your loved ones and your community is fundamental to the shared values that have driven our success for nearly a century. Vaccinations are the safest, most effective, and most powerful tool we have to achieve our goals, live up to our values, and move forward” he added.
The company has already reached 70% vaccination amongst its staff members but the forceful push will hopefully drive the numbers up.
The stringent push for vaccination comes as the deadly Delta Variant continues to spike across the U.S. With fears of potentially lock-down looming, companies are scrambling to ensure that employees receive vaccines. A few more airline companies have imposed similar restrictions, including Frontier who issued a mandate this month urging for company-wide vaccinations and mandatory covid testing. American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, and JetBlue Airways have also followed suit encouraging their employees to get vaccinated, CNBC reported. However, it’s unclear as to whether the companies will eventually mandate vaccinations for their employees.
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