Flight attendants distribute refreshments to a packed Delta Airlines flight departing from Ronald Regan National Airport to MinneapolisSaint Paul International Airport on Friday, May 21, 2021.
Kent Nishimura | Los Angeles Times | Getty Images
Delta Airlines sent a cease and desist letter to the country’s largest cabin crew union after its president criticized the company’s reduced sick leave policy for employees with Covid-19.
Last Thursday, Association of Flight Attendants President Sara Nelson tweeted that the union had received “multiple reports” that Delta was “notifying workers in all work groups that they should come to work with symptoms, even if someone in the household tests positive.” She also said positive workers were told “to come to work after 5 days if the fever is below 100.9, even if they still test positive.”
A day later, Peter Carter, Delta’s Chief Legal Officer, mailed the letter to AFA.
“This information is not only false, it is criminal offense because it casts Delta in a highly negative light by suggesting that Delta asked employees to work while they were ill,” Carter’s letter said. “Such irresponsible behavior is inappropriate, defamatory and must be stopped immediately.”
Nelson, whose union does not represent Delta flight attendants but started one organize drive there in November 2019, defending her comments and saying Delta’s policies confused flight crews.
“Delta’s policy now addresses being asymptomatic before returning to work, which was a serious concern since those CDC policies were originally omitted from Delta’s policy announcement,” she wrote to Delta CEO Tuesday Ed Bastian. “But we still get questions from Delta flight attendants about returning to work with a low-grade fever and the fact that Delta’s current policy only recommends testing before returning to work and doesn’t require testing.”
Delta updated its Covid sick leave policy on Dec. 28 to five days off with wage protection — reduced from 10 days — that doesn’t require employees to spend days in their medical banks. Employees can get two extra days if they test positive again on the fifth day.
“Delta has always looked to science to formulate our policies regarding COVID-19,” a Delta spokesman said Tuesday. “We have sent a cease and desist letter because we believe institutions and leaders must speak carefully, truthfully and factually.”
The airline had asked the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to halve the recommended isolation time for breakout Covid infections to five days, warning of staff shortages and flight cancellations coming later. JetBlue Airways and other airlines asked for the same change. CDC updated its guidance Dec. 27 after relaxing recommendations for healthcare workers.
Cancellations from staff ill with Covid and a series of winter storms topped 20,000 between Christmas and the first week of the year. United Airlines, which has 10 days of wage protection left for crews with Covid, said Tuesday it would further cut its schedule, with 3,000 workers, about 4% of its US employees, testing positive for the coronavirus.
Frontier Airlines and Spirit Airlines Give employees 10 days of wage protection if they test positive for Covid.