Uber to allow employees to work remotely through June 2021

Uber will allow its employees to work from home through the end of June 2021, the company said Tuesday.

The rideshare company confirmed the extension of the option in a statement to The Hill.

“As a company built on flexible working, we want to provide our team with flexibility, choice and longer term clarity so they can plan ahead,” a spokesperson said. “We’ll provide employees with the option to work from home or volunteer to work from the office when their local office reopens.”

The company will also provide workers who opt to continue working from home with a $500 stipend for any home office needs, spokesperson Lois Van Der Laan said. She added that working from home would remain voluntary, and that the decision to work from home, the office or a different location would play no role in any future performance reviews.

“We will reevaluate this policy in Spring 2021, and potentially make changes at the local or global level,” she said. “It will, however, not be shortened from before June 30, 2021.”

The announcement comes after Google said it would also allow employees to work from home through June. Numerous other major tech companies have extended work from home through at least the end of 2020, including Amazon and Apple. Twitter, however, has said its staff will be allowed to work from home indefinitely.

During the pandemic, Uber and its main rival Lyft have been the subject of a lawsuit that seeks to force them to classify its drivers as employees rather than contractors under California law.

Congressional Republicans in May introduced legislation that would provide legal safe harbor for “gig economy” companies such as Lyft, Uber and others when providing protective equipment or wage boosts during the pandemic.