Google is planning to allow its 200,000 full-time and contract workers to continue remote working until at least July next year due to the continued effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai decided to extend Google’s remote working plans to the middle of 2021 following a meeting with senior company executives last week, according to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ).

“To give employees the ability to plan ahead, we’ll be extending our global voluntary work from home option through June 30, 2021 for roles that don’t need to be in the office,” Pichai wrote in a memo, as reported by CNN. 

“I hope this will offer the flexibility you need to balance work with taking care of yourselves and your loved ones over the next 12 months.”

The move to keep Google employees working from home for another full year, on a voluntary basis, would represent a reversal against its plans to begin re-opening company offices in a limited capacity from this month. 

The company announced in May that it would start to open more offices in more cities from 6 July, giving workers the chance to return to a sense of normality, so long as health and safety measures were in place.

Developments with regards to the continued spread of coronavirus across the US has seemingly forced the company’s hand in scrapping these plans and extending the work from home option for another year.

Google’s measures have come after fellow tech rivals, including Facebook, announced permanent changes to their work culture which includes a degree of remote working. 

The social media giant told workers in May, for example, that half of its staff would work from home permanently by 2030. Twitter, similarly, has told its employees they can choose to work from home indefinitely as the coronavirus crisis continues to reshape the way we work.