Google establishes COVID-19 fund to support extended workforce

The COVID-19 fund is the latest in the series of steps the search giant has taken to ensure continued support to its workforce.

As the coronavirus epidemic shows no signs of slowing down, search giant Google has taken a slew of measures including setting up a 24-hour incident response team to stay in sync with the World Health Organization, remote working for employees, protecting people from misinformation, supporting relief efforts, among others.

On Tuesday, the company said it is establishing a COVID-19 fund that will enable all its 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. Through this fund, Google will support its extended workforce by compensating them for their normal working hours if they can't come into work for these reasons.

We know it's an uncertain time and everyone is navigating a lot of ambiguity right now. As we all do so, we want to help everyone in our workforce prioritize their health and the health of our communities. We are carefully monitoring the situation and will continue to assess any adjustments needed over the coming months.

Google

Last week, Google announced that the members of its extended workforce who are affected by reduced office schedules (such as closed cafes resulting from offices moving to work-from-home arrangements) will be compensated for the time they would have worked. The COVID-19 fund is the latest in the series of steps the search giant has taken to ensure continued support to its workforce through the COVID-19 outbreak.

The new fund will also cover last week's commitment relating to reduced office schedules, Adrienne Crowther, Google's director of extended workforce, wrote in a blog post.