Hundreds of Google employees have signed a manifesto requesting that the company retracts its vaccine mandate.
In July, CEO Sundar Pichai announced that employees would need to be vaccinated against Covid-19 in order to reenter Google’s offices. Workers have until December 3 to report their vaccination status and whether they will be working in the office or not.
The 600 Google employees, or just 0.5% of the company’s workforce, signed the manifesto that is asking to replace the mandate with a policy that is “inclusive of all Googlers.”
Additionally, the manifesto states that keeping unvaccinated employees from Google offices “possibly embarrassingly exposes a private choice as it would be difficult for the Googler not to reveal why they cannot return”
The manifesto also opposes requiring workers to upload their vaccination status on the company’s internal system, rather than a third party health provider platform.
“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,” said a Google spokesperson. “We firmly stand behind our vaccination policy.”