Russia’s flag bearer Aeroflot has suspended several pilots for refusing to vaccinate against the coronavirus, as per the report of a russian new agency- RBC news website, that cited a company spokesperson.
The suspension was announced on Monday by the Sheremetyevo trade union of flight personnel. In a letter to Aeroflot CEO Mikhail Poluboyarinov, the president of the trade union Igor Delduzhov recalled that the airline raised awareness among its personnel about the prevention of COVID-19, as prescribed by Rospotrebnadzor. But success rate was just over 80%.
The pilots’ labor union complained to Aeroflot CEO Mikhail Poluboyarinov of discrimination, their arguement is, unvaccinated flight attendants and technical support staff do not face similar dismissals.
“No other Russian airline has similar suspensions,” Igor Deldyuzhov, president of the Sheremetyevo Cockpit Personnel Association (SCPA), said in a letter on the union’s website.
“These measures toward employees provoke excessive social tensions and push them to quit,” Deldyuzhov wrote, urging Poluboyarinov to lift the order to dismiss unvaccinated pilots.
Targetting unvaccinated pilots, orders are issued to suspend from work without pay, "although no one obliged the employer to take such measures," the union noted. And unvaccinated employees of other Aeroflot departments continue to work, which activists called discrimination.
He adds, Aeroflot, which employs 2,300 pilots, should not adopt targetted action against unvaccinated employees, given that the airline reached an 84% vaccination rate among its overall staff.
Despite the availability of three authorized vaccines and media awareness , Russia is among the slowest to get vaccinated against projected rate .
Though Russia’s labor code does not prescribe firings for refusing vaccination, Russia’s labor minister warned this summer that unvaccinated workers risk being sent on unpaid leave.
Russia saw June as the worst of Covid-19 infections, as the highly contagious Delta variant battered the defences. To counter this,Russian government announced a series of unprecedented steps to boost vaccination rates, including forcing service sector businesses to ensure 60% of their staff had been vaccinated, under threat of fines or shutdowns if they failed to hit the target.
Although vaccination have been available to Russians since December, just 39 million out of a population of some 146 million have been fully vaccinated and 46 million received at least one dose.
