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An Android statue in front of the Google campus building in Mountain View, California, January 31, 2022. Google’s parent company, Alphabet, will report fourth-quarter earnings after the closing bell on Tuesday.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images
Google People no longer need to be vaccinated for Covid to enter the building.
In a company-wide email sent to employees Tuesday and viewed by CNBC, Chris Rackow, Google’s vice president of global security, said, “Vaccines are no longer required as a condition of admission to our buildings.” I was.
“It has been three years since the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic last month,” Rackow wrote in a note. Policies and other emergency measures are in place, but the world is in a very different place today, with most people having some immunity to COVID-19 today, and case and hospitalization rates stabilizing. Governments around the world, including the United States, are ending states of emergency, lifting restrictions, and ending vaccination mandates.”
In December 2021, Google told employees, citing government contractor regulations, that they would lose their paychecks and ultimately their jobs if they did not comply with their vaccine policies. Then, in February, it asked its employees to return to the office, and before a U.S. Court of Appeals determined the legal status of its rules, the company said it had no policy on mandatory vaccines for employment, testing, social Relaxed other rules regarding distance and masks.
However, employees had to be vaccinated to enter company premises.
At the time, hundreds of Google employees signed and circulated a manifesto opposing the company’s Covid vaccine mandate, arguing that leadership’s decisions would have far-reaching implications for American corporations. While the outbreak continues among vaccinated employees at our offices, employees who have refused to declare their vaccination status have reportedly been evacuated from our offices and other locations, including off-sites, summits, and team events. He is still prohibited from attending gatherings.
In an email, Rackow urged employees to stay up-to-date on Covid vaccines, saying, “just as we encourage everyone to get their flu shot every year,” the vaccine will be available to Google employees. It added that it was “important” to ensure safety. workplace.
Mandate change comes after President Joe Biden signed the bill Monday to end the national emergency declared during the Covid pandemic that has been going on for over three years. In January, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Covid remained a global health emergency, but February 2022 saw the first major Omicron wave peak. Since then, Covid deaths each week have fallen by 70%. The world’s most populous country has faced its biggest wave of infections to date.
The change in mandate also comes as Google struggles to move employees back to physical offices and the company has begun shrinking real estate amid broader cost-cutting efforts. According to a CNBC report last month, Google will ask cloud employees and partners to share desks in his five largest locations in the division, including New York and San Francisco.
Google declined to comment.
Read the full notes below.
“Last month marks three years since the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic. Today, most people have some degree of immunity to Covid-19, case rates and hospitalization rates have stabilized for months, and governments around the world, including the United States, are We have ended the declaration, lifted the restrictions, and ended the vaccination obligation.
Based on this, we are currently lifting our global vaccine policy. This means that vaccines will no longer be required as a condition of entry into our buildings. Those with existing accommodation will receive an email with detailed guidance.
The Covid-19 vaccine is an important part of our overall strategy to keep Google employees safe, especially at work. It also has the benefit of reducing the risk of serious illness if infected and has helped protect vulnerable members of our community. As always, we encourage you to stay up-to-date on Covid-19 vaccines.
We will continue to follow all local regulations and maintain office cleaning and ventilation standards. Please do your part by monitoring your health and staying home if you are not feeling well.
We have had an extraordinary time that has called for us to adapt and come together in ways we could never have imagined. I am proud and grateful for the resilience you have shown as we navigate through certainty.
Thank you again for all you are doing to keep your colleagues and communities safe.
Chris”