Apple joins Twitter in policy giving employees paid time off to vote in the November election

• Apple announced it would give US retail employees and hourly workers paid time off on Election Day to vote or volunteer at a polling place, Bloomberg News reported Friday.
• "If they choose, our teams can also use this time to volunteer as an election worker at one of your local polling stations," Deirdre O'Brien, senior vice president of retail and people at Apple, said in an email.
• The news comes after nearly 400 other companies joined a nonpartisan coalition called Time To Vote to encourage employees to vote by giving paid time off on Election Day, including Twitter and Uber.

Apple Inc. announced it will give employees paid time off on Election Day to vote or volunteer at a polling place, Bloomberg News reported Friday.

The company will offer US retail employees and hourly workers as many as four hours of time off on November 3, to vote or volunteer, according to the Bloomberg News report.

"For retail team members and hourly workers across the company, if you're scheduled to work this Election Day, we'll be providing up to four hours of paid time off if you need it to get to the polls," Deirdre O'Brien, senior vice president of retail and people at Apple, wrote in an internal email obtained by Bloomberg News.

"If they choose, our teams can also use this time to volunteer as an election worker at one of your local polling stations," O'Brien continued in the email.

Representatives from Apple Inc. did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

The news comes after nearly 400 other companies joined a nonpartisan coalition called Time To Vote to encourage employees to vote by giving paid time off on Election Day, including Twitter and Uber. Apple did not appear on the list of affiliated companies, according to the website.