McDonald’s to require US office workers to get vaccinated; postpones office return
4:07 pm Wednesday, August 11th, 2021
(Reuters) -McDonald’s Corp will require its U.S.-based office workers to be vaccinated against the coronavirus and will delay a return of employees to its offices until at least October, the fast-food giant said on Wednesday.
The company joined New York Stock Exchange and NBCUniversal in adopting a vaccination policy on Wednesday as a result of the resurgence of COVID-19 cases in the United States due to the Delta variant.
In recent weeks, major companies including Alphabet Inc’s Google, Uber Technologies Inc and Facebook Inc said all their U.S. employees must get vaccinated to step into offices after new guidance from U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that requires fully vaccinated individuals to wear masks.
McDonald’s said in an internal note obtained by Reuters it was pushing back office reopening to Oct. 11 from Sept. 7 to allow employees time to get vaccinated.
The company said the vaccination requirement does not apply to employees of McDonald’s restaurants, whether corporate-owned and franchised.
The New York Stock Exchange said it will require anyone accessing its trading floor at 11 Wall Street to be fully vaccinated against the coronavirus as of Sept. 13, according to a memo to the floor community seen by Reuters.
NBCUniversal will require U.S. based-employees returning to its office to be fully vaccinated, the Comcast Corp-owned media company said, adding that the company will require employees to provide vaccination status details.
The company also said it was delaying its large-scale return to no sooner than Oct. 18.
(Reporting by Mrinalika Roy and Ankur Banerjee In Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)
