Airlines to lay off thousands of workers
as COVID-19 support expires
Well- being
Change
Systems
Sustainability
Social system
The airline industry is one of several where large employers have announced plans to conduct mass job cuts over the next few months
Workers are stressed of losing their jobs and becoming unemployed.
Fired workers are entering an economy that is also suffering loses from the coronavirus
Workers are likely to become unemployed and unable to support their basic necessities since the CARES act is also expiring.
Airline workers are in contact with a lot of people constantly
Workers are mainly worrying about if they will still have their job, how long will they be out, what am they going to do in the meantime if they do get furloughed
Increases the risk for them to be infected with the coronavirus
About 1000 airline workers have been tested positive with coronavirus
Employment in the industry has dropped from 512000 workers to 380000 in June
Thousands of workers have already taken voluntary separation agreements, early retirement or volunteered leave of absences .
The weekly unemployed remain to 1 million.
The airline industry globally faces an estimated loss of 84 billion dollars.
Some workers that took voluntarily leaves are reported to be back to work in August
There are a lot of uncertainties in the industry that causes everything to change drastically anytime
Voluntarily leaves
More than 41,000 team members have opted for an early retirement, a reduced work schedule or a partially paid leave
After the virus, there could be a shortage of workers
Laying off employers are a temporary solution to the amount of loss airlines are suffering, but could cause more problems in the near future
“I took the one-year voluntary leave, but we received an email stating we are all to report back to work on 1 August,” said a Delta Air Lines ramp agent
Even if on voluntary leaves, airlines still are to be reported back to work as the shortage of workers
Early retirements
Some workers have taken early retirements seeing the situation of coronavirus worsening, but not everyone can afford retiring early
CARES act
CARES act is a payroll tax credit for employees and have been supporting airline workers through this time, but the support is about to end and a lot workers will not have financial support
Airline and employees
According to an interviewee stated in the guardian, "Delta has repeatedly said they won’t furlough or lay off workers, but every other airline is doing so, and the air traffic and flights just aren’t there. There’s no transparency and Delta isn’t telling us anything.”
The lack of communication between the two sides have caused employees stress about their employment and many other issues. The relationship between the two sides are not transparent and actions are made very sudden without any early notices
Airlines laying off workers
Since all the airlines are facing huge problems in financial, they are all expected to lay off large number of workers.
The following are some of the examples of the amount of employees that are laid off or voluntarily leaving:
"United Airlines said in early July 2020 it could lay off 36,000 employees, about half its workforce in the US.
At JetBlue, over 60% of its workforce, around 20,000 employees, have taken voluntary leave to reduce furloughs in October."
No airlines are able to sustain their business and support their financial state, the current system to every airline is to lay off employees until further notice.