The Covid-19 outbreak has forced a lot of companies to take stern steps related to safety and Air Canada isn’t an exception to that. Air Canada recently suspended more than eight hundred employees who did not get vaccinated against the deadly CoronaVirus. However, if you live in Canada and want to get Canadian citizenship you can try out this free practice test which helps you in getting a good score. This test is for those who have a permanent address in Canada and want to apply for Citizenship.
The Montreal-based company took the decision in accordance with the updated Federal policies for COVID-19 vaccination in Canada. According to the updated policies, the air traveling service providers were mandated to provide proof of vaccination by 29th October 2021.
After surpassing the deadline, institutions could exercise suspension without pay. In response to the decision, Chief Executive Air Canada, Michael Rousseau reassured the investors by declaring in a conference call:
‘Our employees have done their part, with over 96 percent fully vaccinated’.
The Chief Executive further added:
‘The employees who are not vaccinated or do not have a medical or other permitted exemption have been put on unpaid leave’.
Air Canada currently employs almost 26000 employees including cabin crew, service staff, pilots, and other human resources.
Mitigating the effect of the huge layoff, the company’s spokesperson Peter Fitzpatrick remarked in an email that the employees were not a part of a particular job rather that the layoffs are ‘across the company’.
The layoffs in the air travel industry are not only limited to Air Canada. Before that, WestJet Airlines also suspended 290 employees out of its total strength of 7300.
Seemingly, Air Canada made a huge layoff compared to WestJet Airlines, but the percentages are alike for both companies.
The COVID-19 vaccination updated policies for employees require all the core federal employees to provide proof of complete vaccination to avoid unpaid suspension from their duties.
Exemptions on the basis of human grounds and medical records are there. Still, if the employees were unable to provide attestations for their full vaccinations by 29th October 2021, the employers could exercise suspension which they did.
Other than the air traveling industry employees, domestic and international travelers also need to provide proof of their full vaccination at the airports. The accepted list of vaccines include:
- Pfizer-BioNTech (Comirnaty, tozinameran, BNT162b2)
- Moderna (Spikevax, mRNA-1273)
- AstraZeneca/COVISHIELD (ChAdOx1-S, Vaxzevria, AZD1222)
- Janssen/Johnson & Johnson (Ad26.COV2.S)
With these travel restrictions still in place, the flag carrier airline Air Canada showed concern over the revenues. The executives have a concern over the declining number of business travel.
Although they see a positive outcome in domestic and leisure traveling, there’s only a slight recovery in business travel due to changing work dynamics. Most of the employees are still working from home, so they do not need business travels up till now.
An interesting fact about those working from home is that they also need to be fully vaccinated in accordance with the employee vaccination policies and are subject to unpaid suspension if they don’t abide by the policies.
However, the vaccinations are not changing the business tour facts for the airlines which have declined drastically causing the companies losses of hundreds of millions of dollars.
