Delta airlines has decided that if employees of the airline do not want to get vaccinated they will charge $200 a month on the company’s health plan. delta airlines is claiming that the average hospital stay for a COVID patient can cost the airline up to $40,000.
CEO Ed Bastian Reports that employees that were not vaccinated were the ones that ended up in the hospital. Unvaccinated workers will be required to be tested on a weekly basis starting September 12th, 2021. The airline said that it will cover the costs for these tests. The airline will not continue with pay protection to unvaccinated workers who contract COVID-19 on Sept. 30th, 2021.
CEO Ed Bastian said that all employees who have been hospitalized for the virus in recent weeks were not fully vaccinated.
Delta did not follow the same plans as American Airlines did when they required all employees to get vaccinated upon returning to work or working at the airline currently by September 27th. American Airlines said that if a worker refuses to get vaccinated they will be terminated.
In a memo to the employees of delta airlines CEO Bastian said, “This surcharge will be necessary to address the financial risk the decision to not vaccinate is creating for our company.
Other companies such as CVS drugstore chain and Chevron Corp are now requiring workers to get vaccinated due to the fact that the Pfizer vaccine has full approval by the Food and Drug administration. Now that it has passed just approval for emergency use hopefully more people will decide to get the vaccine. In California, Tyson Foods, CNN, and United Airlines, are mandating workers receive the vaccination.
Other companies are thinking about impose insurance surcharges on unvaccinated employees in order to cover the increased costs of hospital bills with those that are sent to the hospital due to COVID-19.
