On Wednesday Delta Airlines made an announcement that starting in November, unvaccinated workers will be subject to a $200 charge on their monthly healthcare plan.
The average hospital stay for Delta employees infected with COVID-19 is $50,000, says CEO Ed Bastian in a memo to employees. He added that the charge highlights the “financial risk the decision not to vaccinate is creating for our company”.
Delta has also announced that starting September 12, it will require unvaccinated workers to get tested weekly if they have traveled to an area of high transmission. The $200 healthcare charge will go into effect November 1.
Bastian’s memo reported that 75% of Delta employees are vaccinated and all of the hospitalizations have been among the unvaccinated. The company’s COVID-19 pay protection will stop at the end of September for unvaccinated workers.
While Delta has not moved to require all employees to be vaccinated, other airlines are. United Airlines made an announcement earlier in August that it would require all employees to get vaccinated. As the airline industry suffered during the pandemic, the delta variant is causing another decrease in flight traffic. Airlines are working hard to recover.