ALPENA — An Alpena-area employer faces a federal lawsuit after employees say they weren’t given proper accommodations when they would not get vaccinated for COVID-19.

Kalitta Air, based in Ypsilanti with a facility in Oscoda, was named in a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan last week by 11 of its employees.

The plaintiffs say the airline discriminated against them by not accommodating their religious and medical exemptions from a company mandate ordering all employees to receive the vaccination.

The airline has not yet filed a response to the complaint.

According to the class action suit, the airline put anyone who was not fully vaccinated against the sickness on unpaid leave, terminating after three months employees who argued an exemption from the vaccine on religious grounds and after one year those who claimed a medical exemption.

Even employees who worked entirely remotely had to take the vaccine or be terminated, according to the lawsuit.

Kalitta should have provided other accommodations for people who said they were unable to receive the vaccine, the lawsuit said.

The suit contends that Kalitta retaliated against employees who refused vaccination by not bringing them back from unpaid leave when, the plaintiffs believe, the vaccine mandate was proven unnecessary.

The 99-page complaint asked that the federal court award back pay and other damages to employees who lost their jobs because of their vaccination status.