Google Threatens to Fire Unvaccinated Employees

Google employees who haven't been vaccinated could be put on forced leave and later fired from the company if they don't follow its COVID-19 rules, according to an internal memo obtained by CNBC. The policy will reportedly affect employees who would have fallen under the jurisdiction of President Biden's vaccine mandate, which is currently facing challenges in the Senate and the judicial system.

According to the memo, Google gave its employees until December 3 to upload proof of vaccination or receive consent for a medical or religious exemption. The company says that anyone who doesn't do any of those things by January 13 will receive a 30-day paid administrative leave. If they fail to comply even after the 30 days, they could face unpaid leave for up to six months and then be fired, according to CNBC.

Google does not deny the policy. Google spokeswoman Lora Lee Erickson told The Verge:

As we've stated before, our vaccination requirements are one of the most important ways we can keep our workforce safe and keep our services running. We're committed to doing everything possible to help our employees who can get vaccinated do so, and firmly stand behind our vaccination policy.

The CNBC report notes that there may be some options for unvaccinated employees, while the company expects the president's term to apply to almost everyone, employees can seek positions that are not covered by him, presumably outside of the office. If they find one (or already have one), they should be able to do the job remotely as well. Google requires office employees to be vaccinated, and frequent testing is reportedly not an acceptable alternative. There is also the option to request an exemption.

Although the company has not determined when employees will have to return to the office after the omicron variant appears, it does expect that much of its workforce will be doing at least some work in person. However, CNBC says that even remote workers will need to be vaccinated if they are included in the mandate.

Both pay and vaccination requirements have been hot topics within the company: During a hands-free venture, executives answered a question about whether Google plans to raise salaries to equalize inflation (the company said it did not plan to do so). CNBC also reported last month that an anti-vaccine mandate manifesto, signed by hundreds of employees, was shared within Google. Tags: Google, COVID-19