NOW: United Airlines Faces Massive Religious Discrimination Class Action Lawsuit Over COVID Shot Mandates
Updated
A federal appeals court just cleared the way for a mass religious discrimination lawsuit against United Airlines, making it one of the largest such cases in history due to the number of plaintiffs involved, along with its potential scope.
The case centers on the airline’s 2021 COVID-19 vaccine mandate and how it handled employees seeking religious exemptions.
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the ruling allowing United Airlines workers to pursue their religious discrimination claims as a class action.
The lawsuit has been working its way through the courts since September 2021, when United employees filed the initial class action complaint seeking injunctive relief and alleging discrimination for denying reasonable accommodations.
A key matter in the case is explained in its filing:
“United implemented a revised accommodation policy for non-customer-facing employees, such as mechanics and ramp agents. Under the new policy, those employees were allowed to continue working but were required to comply with United’s masking-and-testing regime—which Plaintiffs characterize as intentionally and unlawfully punitive. However, customer-facing employees, such as pilots and flight attendants, were still placed on indefinite unpaid leave starting in November 2021, though they were given the opportunity to apply for an alternative non-customer-facing position within United. In total, 2,221 employees were accommodated with unpaid leave and 1,078 were subjected to United’s masking-and-testing accommodation.”
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 makes it unlawful for an employer to discriminate against its employees on the basis of the employees’ religion. To that end, Title VII imposes on the employer an “obligation to make reasonable accommodations for the religious observances of its employees.”
In 2024, the Washington Examiner wrote about the case:
“A more aggressive policy was also proposed by United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby, according to a case briefing obtained by the Washington Examiner. Kirby allegedly tried to implement a policy where the unvaccinated would have to put a sticker on their badge identifying them as someone who received a vaccine accommodation to work, but it failed.”
The United case has not reached a verdict or settlement—the Fifth Circuit upheld class certification on March 9th, sending it back to the district court for trial on the merits and an eventual decision by a jury.
United potentially faces a significant financial hit if a jury decides in favor of the plaintiffs, which could include lost wages, additional damages, and punitive damages.
Under the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, United could be on the hook for $300,000 per person for punitive damages alone, in addition to back pay.
Earlier this week, another airline, Air Canada, was ordered to pay pilots after it denied their religious vaccine exemption.
The judge in the case ruled that Air Canada had established a prima facie case of workplace religious discrimination under the collective agreement and the Canadian Human Rights Act after the company placed them on unpaid leave after denying their exemptions.
In December 2025, the University of Colorado Anschutz agreed to pay $10 million to 18 plaintiffs (students and staff) who sued in 2021 after being denied religious exemptions to the campus’s COVID-19 vaccination mandate.
In November 2024, a federal jury awarded $12.69 million to a former Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan employee after finding that the insurer refused her religious accommodation request to be exempted from a 2021 COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
In October 2024, Northshore University Health System in Chicago agreed to pay $10.3 million to settle claims brought by employees who were fired after refusing to get COVID-19 vaccines for religious reasons.
The pandemic era saw violations at nearly every level of society at the hands of an unjust government and public health orders, many of which are still feeling the ripple effects of. The legal arena battles provide constant reminders that laws and guaranteed protections were violated to the fullest extent to compel compliance.
