Amazon executive shares safety updates with workers
As Amazon has drawn criticism for actions against a worker at a New York City warehouse who organized a walkout because of workplace conditions during the coronavirus outbreak, a company executive responded on a blog to its employees on steps the company is taking.
Dave Clark, senior vice president of worldwide operations at Amazon, posted on Thursday the new steps the company has implemented:
— Temperature checks started Sunday at select sites around the U.S. in an effort to ensure that employees and support staff are healthy when they arrive at work.
“Anyone registering a temperature over the CDC-recommended 100.4F will be asked to return home and only come back to work after they’ve gone three days without a fever,” Clark posted. “We are now temperature checking more than 100,000 employees per day.”
— Increased personal protective equipment is becoming more accessible.
“The millions of masks we ordered weeks ago are now arriving, and we’re distributing them to our teams as quickly as possible,” Clark posted. “Masks will be available as soon as today in some locations and in all locations by early next week.
“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.”
— The company is closing in on goal of hiring 100,000 more workers.
“We have already hired over 80,000 people into those roles, and have spent more than $150 million to support our team of associates and partners,” Clark posted. “We expect to go well beyond our initial $350 million investment in additional pay, and we will do so happily.”
Contact Tony Garcia at tgarcia@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0307. Follow @TonyGLVNews on Twitter.
