Amazon to give warehouse workers masks and check temperatures after employee walkouts
Amazon is taking extra measures to protect its employees from coronavirus after recent public outcry and employee walk-outs.
The company has ordered millions of face masks that are now arriving at warehouse centers for employees to wear.
“Masks will be available as soon as today in some locations and in all locations by early next week,” Amazon’s Senior Vice President of Worldwide Operations, Dave Clark, wrote in a blog post. “Any N-95 masks we receive we are either donating to healthcare workers on the front lines or making them available through Amazon Business to healthcare and government organizations at cost.”
In addition to having face masks to wear, hundreds of thousands of employees per day will have their temperature checked upon arrival, the company says. If a worker has a temperature more than 100.4 degrees, they will “be asked to return home and only come back to work after they’ve gone three days without a fever.”
The company will roll out the same measures at Whole Foods Market stores by next week. Other companies, such as Walmart and Home Depot, are also checking employees’ temperature.
Amazon has hired 80,000 people since March 16 and has plans to hire at least 20,000 more, the company wrote.
It is also learning to improve social distancing in its warehouses.
“We also assigned some of our top machine learning technologists to capture opportunities to improve social distancing in our buildings using our internal camera systems,” Clark wrote in the press release.
The moves come after Amazon faced pubic backlash, including from its workers. Employees at an Amazon facility in Michigan walked out Wednesday over alleged unsafe working conditions and compensation. Workers also protested outside a New York facility Monday, CNBC reported.
The man who organized the New York protest, Christian Smalls, was subsequently fired, USA Today reported. New York Attorney General Letitia James is calling for an Investigation over his firing.
Numerous Amazon workers throughout the country have been diagnosed with coronavirus, but the company has not publicly said how many have tested positive.
In a statement, Clark wrote of extra precautions the company is taking if employees are feeling sick.
“If someone would rather not come to work, we are supporting them in their time off. If someone is diagnosed or comes to us who is presumptively diagnosed (but unable to get a test), we are giving them extra paid time off,” Clark said. “In addition, we are also contacting people who have been in close contact with a diagnosed individual and giving them time off as well, for 14 days, to stay home with pay.”
It’s not clear if the employees who are sent home after a temperature check will be paid.
This story was originally published April 2, 2020 at 4:14 PM with the headline "Amazon to give warehouse workers masks and check temperatures after employee walkouts."