Tech companies, such as Twitter, Google, Microsoft, and Facebook, made announcements this week for treating their respective contractors and hourly employees with some love and decency. As the coronavirus prompts tech giants to ask salaried personnel to work from home, tech contractors lacking the same benefits won't have to choose between health and bills.
If you're an hourly cook in a tech campus' kitchen and salaried personnel forestalls entering the workplace due to the virus, the official time for the disease because of the illness, your services aren't as needed. They won't translate to a pay cut.
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Twitter told Mashable it would give hourly workers, including those who can't perform their responsibilities from home, their regular pay while travel restrictions are in effect.
"All employees, including hourly workers, will receive reimbursement toward their home office set up expenses, and we are working with our vendors to ensure our contractors' WFH needs are met as well," a Twitter spokesperson told Mashable.
Google, Facebook
Google, for its part, confirmed over email that office contractors will still receive a commission in locations that have work-from-home policies in place.
Facebook also followed through, according to TechCrunch. In an email, company spokesperson Chloe Meyere said the tech corporation is working closely with its vendors to prioritize its employees' health and safety.
"Facebook will pay contingent workers that cannot work due to reduced [staff] during voluntary work from home, when we close an office, when we choose to send an employee home, or when they are sick," the email added.
Microsoft
Microsoft, in a Thursday evening blog post, said it recognizes the hardship that lost work can mean for hourly employees. The tech company, as a result, decided to continue to pay all our vendor hourly service providers their regular pay during this period of reduced service needs.
Apple
Mashable reached out to Apple to confirm if it had made a similar decision but received no immediate response. The Verge, meanwhile, reports that the tech giant will "supply hourly workers their normal pay."
Amazon
Amazon told Axios it will also pay its almost 10,000 hourly employees on its Seattle-area office - including food service, security guards, and janitors - when regular employees are asked to work from home.
The e-Commerce company would also subsidize one month of rent for the local small businesses that operate in its own buildings to help support them during this period.
The company has also reached its work from home recommendations to San Francisco Bay Area employees.
Silicon Valley
A week ago, Silicon Valley called on the tech sector to include subcontractors and gig workers in Coronavirus response systems. In a Tweet, Silicon Valley lauded the tech giants for doing the right thing.
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Silicon Valley, the home to many start-ups and global technology companies in the world, urged the rest of the industry to follow suit to avoid public health crises in the tech sector.
