The search engine empire Google has issued a vaccine mandate to its employees, telling them to get both shots by January 18 or else face a series of disciplinary actions that could eventually result in their termination.
In a staff memo obtained by CNBC, Google gave employees until December 3 to share their vaccination status with the company or apply for a medical/religious exemption. After declarations were made, the company said it would then contact the people who either did not register, were unvaccinated, or had their exemptions rejected.
Protesters stand next to a sign during an anti-vaccination rally at the Golden Gate Bridge on November 11, 2021, in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
“The document said employees who haven’t complied with the vaccination rules by the Jan. 18 deadline will be placed on ‘paid administrative leave’ for 30 days,” reported CNBC. “After that, the company will put them on ‘unpaid personal leave’ for up to six months, followed by termination.”
Google will soon be requiring its workers to enter its offices three days a week and will no longer permit the stay-at-home work culture that has become so dominant during the age of coronavirus.
This past September, President Joe Biden announced that the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) will mandate that private companies with 100 or more employees implement vaccine requirements or require weekly negative tests. The president waited nearly two months before releasing the details of his plan, which would not have even taken effect until January of 2022. A company in violation of the mandate could be fined $136,532.
President Joe Biden speaks about COVID-19 vaccinations after touring a Clayco Corporation construction site for a Microsoft data center in Elk Grove Village, IL, Thursday, Oct. 7, 2021. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
However, as the weeks went on, the president’s policy suffered legal blow after legal blow, with a federal judge issuing a preliminary injunction against his national vaccine mandate for healthcare workers in late November. One week later, the Biden administration suffered yet another legal blow when a federal judge issued an injunction striking down the vaccine mandate for federal contractors, arguing that the plaintiffs are “likely [to] succeed in their claim that the President exceeded the authorization given to him by Congress.”
Despite the legal hits, the Biden administration has continually urged companies to follow the mandate, a policy that Google supported.
“We expect that almost all roles at Google in the US will fall within the scope of the executive order,” Google’s memo said. “Anyone entering a Google building must be fully vaccinated or have an approved accommodation that allows them to work or come onsite.”
The company further said that a negative test will no longer be a viable alternative to vaccination.
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