Apple Offers Employees Paid Time Off to Get Vaccinated

To encourage employees to get the COVID-19 vaccine, Apple is offering paid time off for vaccine appointments and paid sick leave for those who experience side effects, reports Bloomberg.

Apple does not have its own supply of vaccines and is not providing shots to workers, so employees will be required to get vaccines through their state's medical facilities.

Since last spring, Apple's campuses in Cupertino, California and other cities have been largely shut down, with most employees working from home. Retail stores around the world were also shuttered for most of the year.

Vaccines will hasten Apple's campus re-openings and will get employees back to work sooner. Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a March interview that he "can't wait" for employees to return to in-person work. Cook said that people need to be together because you can't plan collaboration and innovation.

"Innovation isn't always a planned activity. It's bumping into each other over the course of the day and advancing an idea that you just had. And you really need to be together to do that."

Cook in March said that Apple had no firm return to work date for employees, but in California, where Apple's two main campuses are located, all people over the age of 16 will be eligible to get vaccinated starting on April 15. Cook last year told employees that staff could return to the campuses as early as June.

Retail employees have returned to work as all Apple Stores in the United States have been reopen since March 1, but many corporate employees are still working from home.

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