The tech giant Google has shown its solidarity with the women of the United States by offering those who work at the company the option of transferring over to another state that has maintained its abortion rights, pointing out they can “apply for relocation without justification”.
The company’s stance on abortion rights was made clear via an internal memo that was sent to all company workers which was written by chief people officer Fiona Cicconi. Within the memo, it is specified that while employees don’t need to provide a reason for their relocation, the people in charge of the process “will be aware of the situation”.
In a previous email sent by Google to its workers that was obtained by Bloomberg, it was stated that while there had been over 10,000 requests for relocation of for remote work, the company would be able to fulfil around 85 percent of them.
It’s worth pointing out that this option had been available for all those who worked at Google even before the Roe v. Wade ruling was overturned, which means that the tech giant didn’t actually create any new rules for its employees, just reminded them of their own rights.
Here is an excerpt from Google’s letter to its employees, obtained via The Verge.
“Equity is extraordinarily important to us as a company, and we share concerns about the impact this ruling will have on people’s health, lives, and careers. We will keep working to make information on reproductive healthcare accessible across our products and continue our work to protect user privacy.
“To support Googlers and their dependents, our US benefits plan and health insurance covers out-of-state medical procedures that are not available where an employee lives and works. Googlers can also apply for relocation without justification, and those overseeing this process will be aware of the situation. If you need additional support, please connect 1:1 with a People Consultant via [link to internal tool redacted].”
