Google Employees Sign Manifesto Against Vaccine Policy

(RTTNews) - A large number of Google (GOOG) employees have signed and circulated a manifesto, in which they have opposed the search giant's Covid vaccine mandate, thus making it a tightrope walk for the company to meet important deadlines as employees return to office. The U.S administration has set a deadline of January 4 by which all companies with 100 or more employees has to get them either fully vaccinated or get regular check-ups for COVID-19. As part of this process, Google had asked its more than 150,000 employees to upload their vaccination status to the company's internal system by December 3.

Google has also made it mandatory for all companies, which work directly/indirectly on government projects to be fully vaccinated, even if they were working from home.

Google was already in the process of making vaccination compulsory, irrespective of the Biden executive order. The company had given a deadline of November 12 for employees to submit exemptions from the vaccinations like religious causes or medical conditions.

The manifesto signed by at least 600 employees wants Google to take back the present vaccine mandate and release a new one, which is "inclusive of all Googlers,". The manifesto also asked all the employees to oppose the mandate as it would be sort of coercing them to take the vaccine, whether they want it or not.

Although only a small majority of Google's workforce has signed the document, opposition is expected to increase as more and more people will come to the office by January 10, as per company policy.

A Google spokesperson said, " As we've stated to all our employees and the author of this document, our vaccination requirements are one of the most important ways we can keep our workforce safe and keep our services running. We firmly stand behind our vaccination policy."