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United, Southwest Airlines Vaccine Mandate Class Action Lawsuit Overview:
- Who: A federal judge granted a temporary restraining order against United Airlines that was requested by its workers.
- Why: The temporary restraining order blocks United from placing employees who seek exemption from its COVID-19 vaccine mandate on unpaid leave.
- Where: The class action lawsuit was filed in Texas federal court.
A federal judge has granted a temporary restraining order blocking United Airlines from placing on unpaid leave employees who ask to be exempt from taking the COVID-19 vaccine because of religious or medical reasons.
The judge ruled that without the restraining order in place employees would have no choice but to take the vaccine against their will or be placed on indefinite unpaid leave.
“To be sure, the court is not currently ruling on the merits of the parties’ arguments on these points,” the judge said. “Rather, the court seeks simply to avoid the risk of irreparable harm to the parties and to maintain the status quo while the court holds an evidentiary hearing on the motion for preliminary injunction and issues an order on the same.”
Six United employees — including two captains — filed a class action lawsuit against United in September over the company’s vaccine mandate, arguing it failed to accommodate workers who sought to be exempt from taking the vaccine for religious or medical reasons.
United has argued that nothing in its vaccine mandate policy — which went into effect on Sept. 27 — says employees will be terminated for seeking an exemption, only that they will be placed on temporary leave until the airline comes up with a solution to keep everyone safe.
“United’s current policy of providing unpaid leave to unvaccinated employees as an initial accommodation is therefore neither universal nor permanent,” United said in a prior motion to dismiss.
Airline workers, however, claim United is in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and plans to terminate any employee who fails to earn an exemption, while placing all that apply for one on unpaid leave.
United has maintained that employees who are given medical exemptions will be able to use paid sick leave while those seeking religious exemption will be put on temporary unpaid leave.
The airline asked a judge to dismiss part of the class action lawsuit earlier this week, arguing that, while five of the six lead plaintiffs are from Texas, they couldn’t possibly represent a putative class of 68,000 employees located around the country.
United, Southwest Airlines Both Face Similar Lawsuits Regarding Vaccine Mandates for Pilots
The United ruling could prove to be an influential one, as similar cases pop up throughout the country. On Oct. 8, pilots in the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association filed a similar lawsuit against the airline in a federal court in Dallas.
In that complaint, Southwest pilots said the “new vaccine mandate unlawfully imposes new conditions of employment and the new policy threatens termination of any pilot not fully vaccinated by Dec. 8.”
Southwest pilots have asked for an immediate hearing on the vaccine mandate. They are asking the court to block the company from carrying out federally mandated coronavirus vaccinations temporarily, until an existing lawsuit over alleged labor law violations can be resolved.
Are you a United or Southwest employee who wants an exemption from taking the COVID-19 vaccine due to religious or medical reasons? Let us know in the comments!
The plaintiffs are represented by John C. Sullivan of S&L Law PLLC; Robert C. Wiegand and Melissa J. Swindle of Stewart Wiegand & Owens PC; and Mark R. Paoletta, Gene C. Schaerr, Brian J. Field, Kenneth A. Klukowski and Annika M. Boone of Schaerr | Jaffe LLP.
The United Airlines Vaccine Mandate Class Action Lawsuit is Sambrano v. United Airlines, Inc., Case No. 4:21-cv-01074-P in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas.
The Southwest Airlines Vaccine Mandate Class Action Lawsuit is Southwest Airlines Pilots Association v. Southwest Airlines Co., 3:21-cv-02065-M, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Texas (Dallas)
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4 thoughts onJudge Temporarily Blocks United Airlines From Mandating Vaccines, While Pilots for Southwest Ask Courts To Do the Same
This is ridiculous Thanks for the heads up I will be sure not to fly on these airlines until they are all vaccinated.
Add me please
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Add me please