Delta Air Lines is asking its employees to volunteer to work in their understaffed airport lounges without pay.
“Just come to the ATL airport for a few hours to help with cleaning, wiping tables, running food, restocking food buffets, etc,” the company said in an internal message to employees, adding that they should be dressed in business casual with black pants and white shirts. The company would supply the volunteers with aprons.
The company said volunteers would be needed “at all times,” noting that airport lounges are 115 workers short.
“Ideally we’ll be working each week to fill volunteer slots for the following week,” the company said.
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The message, which notes that employees won’t receive any pay for staffing the lounges, was sent to salaried workers, managers, and headquarters employees.
“We have asked Atlanta-based, salaried employees to volunteer in our Atlanta Delta Sky Clubs to help meet the rapid, recent increases in customer volumes and ensure that our teams continuously deliver the elevated club experiences our customers have come to expect,” the airline said in a statement shortly after the news it was seeking the volunteers was reported.
The story comes as employers across the country struggle to fill vacancies as many potential workers continue to sit out of the labor market amid pandemic fears and generous unemployment benefits. The travel and hospitality industries have been especially hard-hit by the lack of workers, with people becoming more comfortable traveling as the vaccination drive spreads across the country.
President Joe Biden on Monday signaled his support for states to return to a pre-pandemic unemployment system, encouraging people to take work as soon as they find a “suitable job.”
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“We’re going to make it clear that anyone collecting unemployment who is offered a suitable job must take the job or lose their unemployment benefits,” Biden said at the White House.
“I know there’s been a lot of discussion since Friday’s report that people are being paid to stay home rather than go to work,” the president added. “Well, we don’t see much evidence of that. That is a major factor. We don’t see that, look, it’s easy to say, the line has been, because of the generous unemployment benefits, that it’s a major factor in labor shortages.”
