Walmart’s corporate employees and management-level staff must receive the coronavirus vaccination by October 4, the retail giant’s CEO, Doug McMillon, announced in a memo Friday.
CNBC reports:
The mandate applies to all home office associates, in addition to market, regional and divisional employees who work in multiple facilities, the retailer said.
The notice came just shortly after Walmart said it would begin requiring masks for store workers in high-risk counties in the U.S. as determined by the latest CDC rankings, regardless of vaccine status and effective immediately.
Walmart is the latest U.S. mega corporation to issue a vaccine directive for employees as part of an effort to combat the highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus, which is driving a spike in coronavirus cases across the country.
Big Tech giants such as Google and Facebook have both said employees cannot return to corporate offices without the jab. However, they will make exceptions for medical reasons.
“How we implement this policy will depend on local conditions and regulations. We will have a process for those who cannot be vaccinated for medical or other reasons and will be evaluating our approach in other regions as the situation evolves,” Lori Goler, Facebook’s vice president of people, said.
In an email sent to Google’s more than 130,000 employees worldwide, CEO Sundar Pichai said the company is now aiming to have most of its workforce back to its offices beginning Oct. 18, instead of its previous target date of Sept. 1.
The decision also affects tens of thousands of contractors who Google intends to continue to pay while access to its campuses remains limited.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.