Covid-19: Uber tells employees to work from home till mid-September

Ride-hailing major Uber has extended work-from-home policy for its employees till September 13, as California continues to show a dramatic decline in the number of Covid-19 cases.

Uber is also encouraging employees to get vaccinated when it's possible to do so, reports TechCrunch.

"In considering the extension, we took into account the latest scientific data and experts' views; the fact that different countries are at different stages of recovery; and the start of the school year," Uber Chief People Officer Nikki Krishnamurthy said in an email.

In August, Uber told employees they should expect to work from home through June 2021.

"We're taking a number of aspects into consideration, such as how being physically together benefits or reduces productivity, collaboration, and engagement," Krishnamurthy said.

Google has also extended work from home till September 2021 and when the offices reopen, employees may rejoin the workplace for three days a week and work from home on rest of the days.

Google had earlier set January 2021 as a tentative timeline for its workers to return to offices.

In May, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg laid out a detailed remote-working plan to make half of his 50,000-strong workforce work from home by 2030.

According to him, about half of Facebook employees would work from home five to 10 years from now.

Meanwhile, California's statewide number of new Covid-19 cases has fallen a dramatic 90 per cent.

The number of people hospitalised has been reduced 38 per cent over the past two weeks, and the number of ICU patients has dropped 33 per cent, reports Mercury News.

--IANS

na/