COVID vaccination rule to end for Hawaiian Air workers

Hawaiian Airlines is removing coronavirus vaccinations as a requirement for employment effective Oct. 1, joining other air carriers in updating workforce COVID- 19 safety policies.

The changes were announced Wednesday in a message to employees from airline President and CEO Peter Ingram, who said those who chose to take a leave of absence as part of the transitional period testing program will be offered an opportunity to return to work.

Ingram said those who separated employment with Hawaiian Airlines because of the vaccination requirement rather than accepting a leave will not be reinstated, but can apply for open positions as new hires.

A variety of factors led Hawaiian to introduce its COVID-19 vaccination policy, he said, “including the level of cases in the places we serve, pressure on health care resources and the damage COVID had inflicted on our business.”

Since then, Ingram said, conditions and scientific consensus and guidance have evolved. He said high rates of vaccination and infection-induced immunity have reduced the risk, along with the development of therapeutic measures.

“While we are removing the requirement, vaccinations are highly effective at preventing severe illness, and we encourage all employees to stay up to date,” Ingram said.

He acknowledged the vaccination requirement has been “an emotional and divisive issue within our team.”

“I know — from the many conversations I’ve had with you over the past year — that some will be unhappy with the ending of the policy just as some were with its implementation in the first place,” Ingram said.

Hawaiian Airlines spokesperson Alex Da Silva said 96% of the airline’s employees got vaccinated by the Jan. 5, 2022, deadline. Da Silva said fewer than 200 employees chose to take leave or received a reasonable accommodation, and they are being invited to return. Fewer than 100 employees separated from the company, he added.

The airline ended 2019 with 7,437 employees and currently has more than 7,000, according to Da Silva. Workers who took leave will be contacted by Hawaiian’s human resources department and invited back, subject to training and other operational constraints.

Hawaiian’s coronavirus vaccination policy for employees was previously challenged in U.S. District Court. The lawsuit filed in January argued that the airline had unfairly rejected nearly 100% of requests for religious or medical exemptions.

U.S. District District Judge Jill Otake dismissed the case March 18, giving the plaintiffs the right to refile once they had exhausted their administrative remedies, a necessary prerequisite for claims under the Americans With Disabilities Act and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin.

Otake’s ruling said the plaintiffs “admitted that they did not exhaust their administrative remedies before filing this lawsuit, as they have pending inquiries and a charge with the (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission).”

Her ruling added, “Under Title VII, an aggrieved person wishing to bring a claim against an employer must exhaust administrative remedies by filing a charge with the (EEOC) or a qualifying state agency and receiving a right-to-sue notice.”

The EEOC declined to comment on the status of the case, saying, “Under federal law, possible charges (complaints) made to the EEOC are strictly confidential, and we are prohibited from commenting on them, furnishing any information on them, or even confirming or denying the existence of such a charge.”

Some former Hawaiian Airlines workers continue to push for relief. Dwayne Tuzon and Carol Lamse, who were terminated from long careers as flight attendants in January, said the company should afford them the same rights as workers who went on leave.

“We should all be able to come back with our full benefits and seniority. We didn’t have a choice,” said Lamse, who had worked for Hawaiian for 50 years. “I didn’t take the leave because it required that we would have to be vaccinated before we came back, and I knew that I was never going to get the shot.”

Lamse said the airline denied her exemption request, which was based on her Christian religious beliefs and on her doctor’s recommendation since she has had only one kidney since 2001, when she donated her other one to another Hawaiian Airlines flight attendant.

Tuzon called the employee vaccination policy discriminatory since the airline approved few exemptions and is treating employees who were placed on leave differently from those who were terminated.

Tuzon said to take a one-year leave, workers had to agree they would get vaccinated upon their return — a condition that is not required now.

“I was a flight attendant at Hawaiian for 33 years. I want to return to work but not at the bottom,” Tuzon said. “The hope is that everybody would just go back into their seniority level and they get their years of service and go back into their position because of the fact that there is no difference with the CDC guidelines. It’s just wrongful what Hawaiian Airlines is doing compared to all the other airlines.”

All Nippon Airways, a Japanese- based airline operating in Hawaii, told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that it did not have a COVID-19 vaccination requirement policy for its employees throughout the pandemic “as it is the right of each employee to get vaccinated or not.”

At the same time, ANA said it was the first business in Japan to start an in-house vaccination program, in June 2021, in order to expedite the vaccination process for employees and contribute to general public health.

In August 2021, United Airlines instituted the first employee COVID-19 vaccination mandate among U.S. carriers. In October 2021, Southwest, American Airlines, Alaska Airlines, JetBlue and Hawaiian also announced requirements with varying deadlines as new rules from the Biden administration required companies with federal contracts to have vaccinated staffs.

The federal deadlines followed Hawaii Gov. David Ige’s executive order effective Sept. 8, 2021, that required contractors and visitors at state facilities and property to provide proof of vaccination or testing status prior to entry.

Hawaiian Airlines initially offered testing but then implemented a vaccination deadline of Jan. 5. Just a few months later, other carriers had already begun rolling back their earlier requirements.

In April, Delta removed a requirement that workers who were unvaccinated for COVID-19 had to pay an additional $200 a month for health insurance. Delta, a self-insured company, had previously credited the higher premiums for helping to get more than 90% of its U.S.-based workforce vaccinated for COVID-19.

United Airlines began allowing unvaccinated workers to return to their jobs March 28. The change was an update to United’s August 2021 directive that workers who did not get vaccinated would face termination.

United said in 2021 that about 96% of its 67,000 workers were vaccinated for COVID-19. The airline also said that it granted exemptions to more than 2,000 employees, who were put on unpaid leave or moved to noncustomer-facing roles. Another 200 or so were terminated, the airline said.

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.