According to internal documents, Google is planning to eventually fire employees that are not vaccinated for COVID-19. If a Google employee does not comply with the COVID-19 vaccination rules by January 18th 2022, they will be put on “paid administrative leave” for 30 days. If they still don’t comply, they will be put on “unpaid personal leave” for up to six months, followed by termination. When on “unpaid personal leave”, employees will still keep their benefits for the first 92 days, and Google will end their employment after six months if they still don’t comply.
Google employees had until December 3rd 2021 to update the company on their vaccination status and show proof. If there is a medical or religious exemption, then the employees can apply and it will be granted on a case-by-case basis.
This decision was most likely due to the Biden administration’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate from November 4th. In the executive order, the administration ordered employees of companies with 100 workers or more to be fully vaccinated or regularly tested by January 4th. The U.S. federal court froze this mandate, but Google is still taking action to ensure that their workers will fulfil this mandate.
In June of this year, tech giants like Facebook and Google started requiring their employees to get vaccinated before returning to offices Many other companies are pushing back their office work plans, but Google is pushing for employees to come into the physical offices for three days a week sometime next year.
Even though this COVID-19 vaccine mandate seems like a reasonable idea, it has its fair share of critics. Over 600 Google employees signed a manifesto against Google’s new rule, mostly criticising the fact that employees who work from home still have to get vaccinated.
In response to this, Google has suggested that employees can “explore” if there are any roles at Google that don’t conflict with the executive order, though they “expect that almost all roles at Google in the US will fall within the scope of the executive order”. Also, if the employee does have a valid reason for not getting vaccinated, such as religious beliefs or medical conditions, then they can always apply for an exemption.
If employees find roles that don’t conflict with the executive order, then they will “permanently work remotely going forward.”
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