Google will pay, fire employees who avoid vaccines: Report
Google has threatened to reduce wages or even fire employees who do not comply with internal policies on Covid 19 vaccinations, CNBC reported, citing internal documents.
Unit Alphabet Inc. warned employees that they must report and prove immunization status until December 3, or apply for a waiver. CNBC says those who fail to comply by January 18 will be subject to “paid administrative leave” for 30 days. They can then be placed on unpaid leave for up to six months, before eventually being fired, it added.
Like much of the US, Silicon Valley is grappling with a resurgence of Covid 19 and a new omicron variant, forcing companies to reevaluate their plans to bring employees back to the office. The Biden administration has mandated vaccinations for federal contractors across the country, but several major U.S. corporations have suspended compliance efforts amid a barrage of challenges from states that say the president has overstepped his bounds. its authority to request a Covid-19 injection.
Google, which has more than 150,000 employees in the country, said it plans to follow Biden’s orders. In July, the search giant said it would require all workers to return to work for vaccinations. A representative for the company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“We expect that virtually all roles at Google in the US will be within the scope of the executive order,” CNBC reported, citing the Google memo. “Anyone entering a Google building must be fully vaccinated or have an approved accommodation that allows them to work or visit the site,” the company said, adding that “routine checks are not a valid alternative to vaccination.”
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from an aggregated feed.)