▸ The tech giant has announced the COVID-19 fund for temporary staff and vendors across the world
▸ The company has also banned ads for medical face masks
▸ Partnered with UK’s NHS to prevent the spread of misinformation about the outbreak, by promoting correct health and travel advice when people search for coronavirus treatments or symptoms
Google’s parent Alphabet Inc last week issued a memo offering work-from-home to employees in Washington. When Coronavirus cases jumped to 647 in the US with New York alone having around 170 cases, the company proffered the same to its 100,000 (approx) employees working across 11 offices in the US and Canada.
The company realised the criticality of offering remote work opportunity to its employees after the Coronavirus cases hit the number of around 1,000 cases across the globe.
Chris Rackow, Vice President of Global Security, Google said in a statement,
“Out of an abundance of caution, and for the protection of Alphabet and the broader community, we now recommend you work from home if your role allows,”
Alphabet also added that the offices in North America will remain open for the employees which are required to work-from-office.
The software giant has also announced the establishment of a COVID-19 fund for temporary staff and vendors across the world. Adrienne Crowther, Google’s Director for Workplace Services in a statement said,
“As we’re in a transition period in the U.S.—and to cover any gaps elsewhere in the world—Google is establishing a COVID-19 fund that will enable all our temporary staff and vendors, globally, to take paid sick leave if they have potential symptoms of COVID-19, or can’t come into work because they’re quarantined,”
“Working with our partners, this fund will mean that members of our extended workforce will be compensated for their normal working hours if they can’t come into work for these reasons. We are carefully monitoring the situation and will continue to assess any adjustments needed over the coming months.” Crowther added
How other giants are dealing with Coronavirus outbreak
Apart from Google, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and Facebook also recommended their staffs in Seattle to work from home as the Corononavirus spreads quickly in Washington. The state reportedly has over 160 Coronavirus cases as of Monday.
Amazon and Facebook each have one employee diagnosed with Coronavirus. On Sunday, Apple CEO Tim Cook also disseminated a message across global offices of Apple asking the employees for work from home adding “If your job allows”.
On March 1, Twitter in a blog post mentioned that it is mandatory for employees in Hong Kong, Japan, and South Korea offices to work from home,
“Working from home will be mandatory for employees based in our Hong Kong, Japan, and South Korea offices due in part to government restrictions. Our criteria will evolve over time as we get more information, and we will communicate to affected Tweeps as appropriate.”
