United hit with 2 lawsuits over COVID vaccine mandate

With United Airlines threatening to fire employees who do not comply with the company’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate, workers are responding by filing a duo of lawsuits.

All 67,000 employees at United, which uses Newark Liberty International Airport as one of its hubs, have to get vaccinated under a company policy announced in August. So far 99% of employees have complied, according to the airliner on Sept. 28.

One suit filed in the U.S. District Court in Fort Worth, Texas is seeking a “religious exemption” to not get the vaccine, according to WLS. A second suit was filed last week in federal court, where six employees are seeking a medical or religious exemption. They’ll stay on the payroll until Oct. 8, which is the court date, according to WESH. The workers will “effectively be terminated” by being placed on an “indefinite leave of absence,” the suit reads.

United responded that it was “vigorously” defending its mandates.

Vaccine mandates began as a touchy subject, with many New Jersey employers not indicating whether they would require the jab for their workers.  In early August, NJBIZ asked 55 of the state’s biggest employers for their stance on requiring the shot among employees. Most did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Since then, companies have begun imposing vaccine mandates, mainly after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration fully approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

Mask mandates, travel restrictions and business closures were lifted months ago and the delta variant of the virus has spread among unvaccinated Americans, driving up new daily case counts and hospitalizations to levels not seen since the spring.

Meanwhile, nearly 1.4 million people who work in New Jersey could be subject to a new vaccine mandate imposed by the Biden administration requiring businesses with more than 100 employees to require that employees get the shot. The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration is putting together those rules.