1.GAP:-NGap Inc has settled federal charges that it routinely discriminated against employees who were not U.S. citizens because of their immigration status, the Department of Justice said on Monday.
The accord requires the San Francisco-based clothing retailer to pay a $73,263 civil fine, provide back wages to two employees who lost work because of its practices, and upgrade its employee training worldwide.
It ends a 3-1/2-year-old probe into Gap, which did not admit wrongdoing and said its actions did not violate a 1986 federal law against immigration-related employment discrimination.
Gap was accused of unnecessarily “reverifying” the employment eligibility of some lawful permanent residents and naturalized U.S. citizens, and requiring some employees to provide specific immigration documents to confirm their eligibility to work.
2.GOOGLE :A group of former Google employees sued the Alphabet Inc unit on Monday alleging that it breached their employment contracts by not honoring its famous motto “don’t be evil.”
In the lawsuit filed in California state court in Santa Clara county, former Google employees Rebecca Rivers, Sophie Waldman and Paul Duke alleged that they were fired two years ago for fulfilling their contractual obligation to speak up if they saw Google violating its “don’t be evil” pledge.
Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The company has said before that the employees violated data security policies.
Their firings also have led to an ongoing National Labor Relations Board trial over whether the company engaged in unfair practices to stem growing worker organizing. Rank-and-file engineers and others working at tech companies in recent years have sought greater say over policies and projects. Management has pushed back, seeking to maintain control.
The three former Google software engineers had raised concerns at town halls and other forums inside Google about the company potentially selling cloud technology to U.S. immigration authorities, which at the time were engaging in detention tactics considered inhumane by rights activists, including separating migrant children from their families.
3.GOLDMAN SACHS:-Goldman Sachs Group Inc on Monday introduced a slew of benefits for its employees, as it attempts to ease the strain on its workers and woo talent.
The bank is increasing its retirement fund, matching contributions for U.S. employees to 6% of total compensation, a jump of 2%, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Goldman will also contribute 8% of total compensation for employees making $125,000 a year or less, the person said, adding the bank was eliminating the one-year waiting period before matching employee contributions for new recruits.
Employees will be eligible for a paid leave of 20 days each for the loss of an immediate family member or in case of a miscarriage, the source said.
“We’re focused on delivering energy optimization, resilience, and mental health programs that support our people in caring for themselves and their families,” Bentley de Beyer, the bank’s global head of human capital management, said in an e-mailed statement in response to Reuters’ request for comment.
The Wall Street Journal first reported the news, citing details from a company memo.
In February, a group of junior bankers in Goldman’s investment bank told senior management they were working nearly 100 hours a week and sleeping 5 hours a night to keep up with an over-the-top workload and “unrealistic deadlines”.
4.TWITTER : Twitter Inc Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey is stepping down from his role and Chief Technology Officer Parag Agrawal will now lead the company, the social networking site announced on Monday.
The appointment of Agrawal, a 10-year veteran of Twitter, signaled a tacit endorsement by the board of a strategy the company previously laid out to double its annual revenue by 2023, even if investors were not so sure.
Twitter shares surged nearly 10% after the announcement and closed down 2.7%.
Dorsey, who co-founded Twitter in 2006, is leaving after overseeing the launch of new ways to create content through newsletters or audio conversations while simultaneously serving as CEO of his payments processing company Square Inc.
He also navigated the tumultuous years of U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration before banning the Republican from the platform after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
5.MODERNA : Moderna Inc shares have rallied Monday after the emergence of the new Covid-19 variant, Omicron, which has vaccine makers examining whether a new booster shot will need to be produced.
Moderna shares are trading around 11.3% above Friday’s close.
Moderna’s CEO, Stephane Bancel, told CNBC that it will take months to develop a booster shot explicitly designed for the new variant, but a higher dose of its current shot could be ready much sooner.
However, he also acknowledged that the variant is likely to be in most countries already. On Sunday, Moderna’s Chief Medical Officer Paul Burton said he suspects the new variant may elude current vaccines, but they will know more in the next couple of weeks.
“We should know about the ability of the current vaccine to provide protection in the next couple of weeks,” said Burton, speaking on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show. “If we have to make a brand new vaccine, I think that’s going to be early 2022,” he added.
Initial comments from a South African doctor who was one of the first to raise the alarm about the strain said the symptoms were so far very mild and could be treated at home. If that is the same for most cases — which may be true if it is already prevalent globally — a specifically designed booster shot may not be warranted.
