United Airlines is requiring all of its U.S.-based employees to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 within the next few months, CEO Scott Kirby and president Brett Hart said in a memo to employees on Friday.
The carrier's U.S.-based employees by Oct. 25 must upload a vaccine card showing they have received either both shots of the two-dose Pfizer or Moderna vaccines or the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine, according to the memo. If the U.S. Food and Drug Administration before Sept. 20 announces full approval of one of the vaccines, beyond their current emergency-use authorization, that deadline moves up to five weeks beyond that approval date.
"We know some of you will disagree with this decision to require the vaccine for all United employees," Kirby and Hart said in the memo. "But, we have no greater responsibility to you and your colleagues than to ensure your safety when you're at work, and the facts are crystal clear: Everyone is safer when everyone is vaccinated."
United is the first major U.S. carrier to issue a vaccine requirement for employees, though both it and Delta Air Lines earlier this year began requiring new hires to be fully vaccinated. Kirby and Hart in the memo noted that several government, health care, educational and Fortune 100 entities in recent weeks have announced vaccine requirements, and such a mandate is supported by several medical groups, including the American Medical Association.
The carrier will have a "very narrow reasonable accommodation process," a legal requirement, to handle those employees claiming a medical or religious exemption to vaccination, according to a United spokesperson. Anyone granted such an exemption still will be required to wear a mask at all times, the spokesperson said.