American, Alaska Won’t Pay Sick Time for Unvaccinated Workers

American Airlines and Alaska Airlines say they will no longer cover unvaccinated employees if they have to quarantine after contracting, or come into contact with, COVID-19.

“Going forward, given there is an FDA-approved vaccine, pandemic leave will only be offered to team members who are fully vaccinated and who provide their vaccination card to us,” American said in a staff memo seen by CNBC.

The change starts Oct. 1 for American; a similar policy went into effect on August 30 for Alaska.

Now unvaccinated workers will have to use their sick time or medical leave if they miss work because of COVID. It’s a clear push by the respective airlines to get employees vaccinated, although neither American nor Alaska are mandating vaccines as United did last month.

Alaska Airlines, however, is offering workers a $200 incentive if they get vaccinated by October 15.

Delta Air Lines last week said it will impose a $200 monthly surcharge on employees covered by the company health insurance on Nov. 1 if they are not vaccinated. Delta also said it would stop pay protection for unvaccinated staff if they miss work because of a COVID infection.

By contrast, Southwest Airlines said it would restore pay or paid time off to workers who had to quarantine due to COVID retroactive to June 16. The company had discontinued that program in mid-June, citing a drop in cases and high vaccine availability.

“With COVID-19 cases continuing to rise, due to the Delta variant, Southwest is taking an additional step to support our Employees by implementing a Quarantine Pay Program,” said Southwest spokeswoman Brandy King. The new policy will restore time-off balances for staff “who previously, and responsibly, quarantined for Company-related incidents over the summer as cases spiked in the general population across the country.”