Amazon Has Hired 80,000 Workers Amid Soaring Demand During Outbreak -- 2nd Update
April 02 2020 - 12:39PM
Dow Jones News
By Sebastian Herrera
Amazon.com Inc. has filled 80,000 jobs in the span of a few
weeks, part of a hiring spree to add 100,000 workers to meet
soaring demand in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
The tech giant also announced a raft of worker protections,
including plans to check employee temperatures at its facilities in
the U.S. and Europe and at Whole Foods Market locations by early
next week. The company is checking the temperature of 100,000
employees a day and plans to provide masks to all facilities by
next week, according to Dave Clark, Amazon's senior vice president
of world-wide operations. Any employee found to have a temperature
above 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit will be asked to go home and not
return until after having gone three days without a fever, Mr.
Clark said.
The announcement comes after Amazon warehouse workers and other
hourly employees have called on Amazon to do more to protect them.
Employees in at least 15 warehouses in the U.S. have tested
positive for Covid-19 or entered quarantine due to symptoms, the
company said this week. That list has grown almost daily in recent
weeks.
Amazon employs more than 500,000 people in the U.S., making it
the second largest private employer. Walmart Inc., the nation's
largest private employer with about 1.5 million workers, recently
announced similar plans to provide masks to employees and take
temperatures at the start of each shift. The company has hired
65,000 workers since March 19 and said it would add 150,000 to
manage the shopping surge sparked by the outbreak.
About 15 employees at a warehouse in Staten Island, N.Y., walked
out of work on Monday, according to Amazon. The walkout was
followed by similar actions at facilities in Chicago and the
Detroit area, as well as a "sick out" on Tuesday by workers at
Whole Foods, which is owned by Amazon.
As the virus spread across the U.S., Amazon has faced
overwhelming demand and mass employee absences at its warehouses,
The Wall Street Journal reported this week. Some workers have said
Amazon hasn't provided enough cleaning supplies at facilities or
properly enforced social-distancing efforts. Organized employees
have called on Amazon to shut down any warehouse where at least one
confirmed case of Covid-19 is found.
Amazon has implemented several measures to keep employees safe
at warehouses, including separating tables and chairs inside break
rooms and eliminating meetings between workers and managers that
would typically begin before each shift, according to workers. The
company said warehouses with confirmed cases can be temporarily
closed for deep cleaning and reopen once that process is over.
Amazon has secured an additional 450,000 canisters of
disinfectant wipes and more than 50,000 hand sanitizers for its
warehouse staff, according to a memo reviewed by the Journal.
Mr. Clark of Amazon said in a blog post that the company is in
the process of distributing masks to workers, which will be
available as soon as Thursday in some locations, with all
facilities having masks by early next week. The company will donate
any N95 masks it receives to health-care workers or will sell them
at cost, he said.
Amazon has rolled out several new policies in recent weeks. The
company said employees who show symptoms or are diagnosed with
Covid-19, or are in quarantine, are eligible for up to two weeks of
paid sick leave. The company has also raised hourly pay for
employees in the U.S. and Canada by $2 through the end of April and
allowed employees to take an unlimited amount of unpaid time off
through the end of the month. Mr. Clark said Amazon expects to "go
well beyond our initial $350 million investment in additional pay,
and we will do so happily."
The company is planning to conduct daily audits of the new
health and safety measures, using cameras in its facilities and
machine learning to monitor social distancing.
"With over 1,000 sites around the world, and so many measures
and precautions rapidly rolled out over the past several weeks,
there may be instances where we don't get it perfect, but I can
assure you that's just what they'll be -- exceptions," he said in
the post.
Write to Sebastian Herrera at Sebastian.Herrera@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 02, 2020 12:24 ET (16:24 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN)
Historical Stock Chart
From Aug 2024 to Sep 2024
Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN)
Historical Stock Chart
From Sep 2023 to Sep 2024