Coronavirus Update: Facebook Launches Paid Time Off Programs For Employees Caring For Sick Relatives

In the wake of the deadly coronavirus pandemic, Facebook has launched paid time off programs for its employees.

Under the new programs, Facebook employees can avail paid time offs up to a month to care for their sick relatives. A Facebook spokesperson talked to CNBC and told that the company is aware that the people are going through a difficult time due to COVID-19 pandemic.

“We want to support our people with navigating their needs during this time. Therefore, we have launched a number of initiatives for our employees and their families,” the spokesperson said.

The tech giant is offering a paid emergency care leave initiative. This program allows 30 working days of leave to employees who need to travel to another state or country in order to attend a sick relative.

Facebook is allowing its employees to have flexible work schedules and they can go offline in big chunks without them using any paid time off.

In the meantime, Facebook has announced two initiatives to support government health organizations using the Messenger.

Stan Chudnovsky, VP of Messenger, wrote in a blog post detailing the new initiatives. “We’re launching a global program to connect government health organizations and UN health agencies with developers that can help them use Messenger most effectively to share timely and accurate information and speed up their responses to concerned citizens. Our developer partners have offered to provide their services free of charge to these organizations during this crisis,” Chudnovsky wrote.

The company will also organize an online hackathon to deal with COVID-19 social issues.

“We’re also partnering with hackathon provider Devpost to invite developers around the world to participate in an online hackathon leveraging the Messenger platform to build messaging solutions that address COVID-19 issues like social distancing and keeping people educated and informed.”

The coronavirus death toll is increasing at an alarming rate with 16,572 deaths, according to John Hopkins University. More than 380,000 people have been tested positive for coronavirus.