Google tells employees they must be vaccinated against COVID-19 for office return

CEO Sundar Pichai reveals the plan in memo to employees as office return date is pushed back

Google has told its employees that they must be vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus before returning to the office later this year.

In a memo to the company's workforce, CEO Sundar Pichai said the policy would start with its California base before being extended to other US states and countries.

He has also pushed back the date for the reopening of its offices from September to 18 October, following Apple's similar announcement last week.

"Anyone coming to work on our campuses will need to be vaccinated," Pichai said in the memo.

"We're rolling this policy out in the U.S. in the coming weeks and will expand to other regions in the coming months.

"Getting vaccinated is one of the most important ways to keep ourselves and our communities healthy in the months ahead."

The vaccine mandate will be adjusted to adhere to the laws of each location, while exceptions will be made for medical and other reasons, according to Pichai.

Google is the first of the tech giants to announce that full vaccination will be a requirement for office working. Not all of its employees will have to work in the office when they reopen, however, with Pichai recently revealing plans to let 20 per cent of its workforce work remotely on a permanent basis.

It marked a U-turn from the company's previous proposal, which had said employees would need to work a minimum of three days in the office each week.

Google also announced its quarterly results yesterday - reporting significant growth for Google Cloud with revenue up 54 per cent year-on-year.