Marriott Sued Over United Employee Termination Due To Alleged Covid-19 Quarantine Violations

A civil case was filed against Marriott on Monday by a former United employee who was terminated by the airline after a hotel had complained that the guest and his companion had violated their quarantine protocols.

Mr. Ray had worked on several international flights during early 2020 and a total of 20 years on United. He had also received lifetime Titanium status with Marriott Bonvoy.

You can read from what transpired from the plaintiff’s view on the PDF below:

Download (PDF, 180KB)

Conclusion

I would say that it is a privacy violation on the hotel’s part to contact United regarding a situation with the guest in question.

If the guests violated the hotel’s or Marriott’s Covid-19 policies at the time, they should have asked them to simply leave.

In a case that they violated policies that the city, county, or state had in place, they should have contacted the relevant local authority set to deal with Covid-19 and quarantine-related issues and let them handle the case.

These events took place relatively early in the pandemic, and many jurisdictions didn’t have clearly defined rules in place.

It didn’t help that the messaging coming from the White House regarding wearing masks and quarantine was inconsistent.