With the COVID-19 pandemic in full swing, tech companies across the nation are instructing employees to work from home to prevent spreading the virus, Oracle among them. However, facilities, cafeteria, and janitorial staff who are vital to Oracle's operations are not able to take advantage of these policies. Instead, they will face cut hours and diminished pay. As Oracle employees, we cannot stand by while our friends and colleagues go without the pay they need to survive through no fault of their own.

Other tech companies have plans in place to ensure these workers will still be paid. According to a Microsoft blog post from March 5th, Microsoft will be paying hourly vendor service workers despite reduced needs for services: “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.” This is also a public health issue, as workers who are not guaranteed paid leave must often choose to work while sick and spread illness.

Oracle's quarterly financial report from March 12th reflects “an extremely strong quarter,” per CEO Safra Catz. Oracle can and must afford to pay our support staff, irrespective of what vendors we contract their work out to. We, the undersigned Oracle employees, demand that Oracle follow Microsoft’s example and ensure that our facilities, cafeteria, and janitorial colleagues are taken care of during this trying time.