Twitter has made working from home mandatory for all employees

REUTERS/Anushree Fadnavis

Twitter founder Jack Dorsey.

• Twitter has made working from home compulsory for all its staff because of coronavirus fears.
• That's a step up from its earlier advice suggesting people work from home.
• For contractors and hourly workers unable to do their jobs from home, Twitter said it will "continue to pay their labor costs to cover standard working hours."
• On Wednesday, the World Health Organization officially classified COVID-19 as a pandemic, with over 124,000 worldwide cases of the disease and over 4,600 deaths reported to date.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Twitter has made working from home compulsory for all its staff because of coronavirus fears.

In an updated blog post, the company said it was stepping up its guidance of "strongly encouraging" to working from home to mandatory remote work.

For contractors and hourly workers unable to do their jobs from home, Twitter said it will "continue to pay their labor costs to cover standard working hours."

"We understand this is an unprecedented step, but these are unprecedented times," the post added.

In the last week, numerous major tech firms have introduced work-from-home measures as the coronavirus continues to spread within the US and globally.

As Business Insider reported Wednesday, Google is recommending all employees in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa work from home because of coronavirus. The recommendation comes a week after it advised workers in its Washington state and California offices to work from home, as well as those in its 8,000-strong Dublin office.

Amazon has recommended that employees in its New York City and New Jersey offices work from home, as well as asking its staff in the Seattle area and Italy to work remotely, while Apple has recommended its Silicon Valley staff work from home and Facebook has given the same advice to its Bay Area staff.

On Wednesday, the World Health Organization officially classified COVID-19 as a pandemic. More than 124,000 cases of the disease - including nearly 1,000 cases in the US - have been reported to date. At the time of writing, over 4,600 people have died from the disease worldwide.

Today we informed all Twitter employees globally they must work from home to support worldwide efforts to stop the spread of #COVID19. This moves beyond our earlier guidance of "strongly encouraging work from home." https://t.co/xQ6Xa4BHg0

- Twitter Comms (@TwitterComms) March 12, 2020

NOW WATCH: How running shoes can be recycled into ski boots