Delta Air Lines is telling its flight attendants who test positive for COVID-19 not to tell fellow crew members of their condition nor post about it on social media, according to an internal memo obtained by the Huffington Post.
"Please refrain from notifying other crew members on your own," read the email, which was sent to Delta's 25,000 flight attendants on Thursday. "Once you have completed the reporting procedures listed above, leaders will follow the established process to notify any impacted flight attendants."
The email provides phone numbers for hotlines to report diagnoses and inform management of plans to take an absence, and urges employees to "please ensure you complete these actions as soon as symptoms occur" while also warning "Please do not post on social media (including SkyHub) about your health status."
There was immediate backlash, including one flight attendant who anonymously told the Huffington Post that "Employees have freedom of speech about their health. No employer can take that away. We have a responsibility to take care of ourselves, our coworkers and everyone we come in contact with."
By Friday morning, Delta had amended its note to the flight attendants, asking that crew allow the company to handle communicating new infections because "we take the responsibility of notifying all of our Delta people seriously and have a strong protocol in place to ensure we get in touch with anyone potentially exposed to provide support."
"Indeed, it was not our intent to cause confusion among flight attendants on this," Delta spokesperson Morgan Durrant told HuffPost by email. He added that "there are no plans to penalize anyone" who violates the protocols.
HuffPost obtained audio of a voicemail received by another flight attendant who came in contact with a colleague who tested positive for the virus, saying 'You may have been exposed in the last 14 days to a person on your recent rotation who may have had symptoms of COVID-19. I'm sharing this information with you for your awareness. "We have evaluated your level of exposure, and because of this, you may continue to fly while self-monitoring for symptoms for 14 days."
Last week, a video surfaced showing a Delta executive telling pilots who tested positive for COVID-19 not to share the information with other crew members.
"It's a sad, sad situation that the flight attendants and other workers at Delta-ground workers, ticket agents, ramp services and mechanics-don't know if they can trust the company now," James Carlson told the HuffPost. Carlson is the assistant airline coordinator of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, the union with which flight attendants at Delta are seeking representation.
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