United Airlines may be forced to pay upwards of $1 billion after a federal court ruled to grant nationwide class action status to over 2,200 employees who were placed on unpaid leave for choosing not to get vaccinated against COVID-19 during the pandemic.
A judge in the Northern District of Texas, fifth circuit, ruled on Friday that all United Airlines employees put on unpaid leave despite having a religious exemption to the vaccine can join Sambrano v. United Airlines, making the case one of the largest religious discrimination class action lawsuits in history.
“I’ve never seen anything this big,” Sherry Walker, co-founder of Airline Employees for Health Freedom, told the Washington Examiner. Walker is one of 2,211 class members on the lawsuit.
At first, all unvaccinated employees were placed on indefinite unpaid leave. After the lawsuit was initially filed in 2021, United Airlines amended its policy to only place “customer facing” employees (those who interact with patrons) on unpaid leave, while “non-customer facing” employees were given a “mask and test” mandate.
The company’s “mask and test” mandate required unvaccinated “non-customer facing” employees to wear an N95 respiratory mask at all times, even though more breathable cloth masks were allowed elsewhere. The mask mandate was required when employees were outside, even in the Texas heat, and while on vacation, and required the unvaccinated to eat alone.
Walker cited two examples of airline employees who passed out while wearing the N95 masks, including one where an employee was “in the belly of the plane” and scraped his head on the ground when he lost consciousness.
