Facebook’s Parent Firm Delays Office Return, Mandates Booster Shots

USA – Meta – the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp – has pushed back the re-opening date of its offices in the country. It has also required its staff to take COVID-19 booster shots before going back to their workplace, reported Reuters on Tuesday morning (11 January, SGT).

Meta is now part of a growing list of businesses changing their office reopening plans due to a spike in COVID cases due to the more contagious Omicron variant.

For Meta’s staff who want to work from the office, the reopening date has been extended to 28 March 2022 from 31 January previously, announced the tech titan on Monday.

All Meta employees going back to their workplace will need to show proof that they have taken a booster shot, while the company closely observes the Omicron situation, it stated. At present, the tech giant mandates that all of its staff returning to the office in the US must be inoculated against COVID-19.

Notably, American companies have made COVID-19 vaccination a requirement for employees going back to the office, as the Omicron variant pushes up infections to record highs across the country.

Last week, Citigroup announced that its US employees who have not been inoculated against COVID by 14 January will be placed on unpaid leave and be laid off if they are still not vaccinated by the end of the month.

In December 2021, Meta had offered its workers an option to delay returning to office. The company stated on Monday that it will let staff decide by 14 March if they want to return to their workplace or defer again.