Tech giants like Google, Microsoft, Twitter, Facebook and Amazon have decided to pay hourly employees their regular rates even if they have been asked to work from home due to the rising fear of deadly coronavirus outbreak.

Majority of these companies have told their employees to work from home to help prevent spread of the virus. But there are certain jobs like cooks, cleaners and shuttle divers that are not possible to perform from remote locations. As of now, these employees too will get paid, reports stated.

Several media organisations have quoted these companies as speaking about their hourly payment policies. We listed them for you.

Microsoft quoted as saying by Thursday evening blog post: “We recognize the hardship that lost work can mean for hourly employees. As a result, we’ve decided that Microsoft will continue to pay all our vendor hourly service providers their regular pay during this period of reduced service needs. This is independent of whether their full services are needed.”

Google and Twitter told Axios they would also give hourly workers their regular pay.

Facebook told Tech TechCrunch: “We are working closely with our vendors to ensure we prioritize our team’s health and safety. Facebook will pay contingent workers that cannot work due to reduced staffing requirements during voluntary work from home, when we close an office, when we choose to send an employee home, or when they are sick.”

Amazon Was quoted by Axios as saying: “We will continue to pay all hourly employees that support our campus in Seattle and Bellevue – from food service, to security guards to janitorial staff – during the time our employees are asked to work from home. In addition, we will subsidize one month of rent for the local small businesses that operate inside our owned buildings to help support them during this period.”

Apple too has confirmed The Verge that it will continue to may its hourly workers as per their regular rates.

As per the latest reports, social media firms like Facebook, Twitter have closed their Seattle offices as their employees were detected positive with the new coronavirus.

(With input from agencies)