Amazon updates safety measures
Amazon’s senior vice president of worldwide operations Dave Clark updated the company’s safety measures for workers on Thursday; the company faced scrutiny from some legislators as well as warehouse workers in Michigan and New York who staged walkouts. Workers at a Whole Foods in Austin, Texas held a “sickout,” too, claiming Amazon wasn’t doing enough.
Clark delivered new measures in a blog post that includes a new requirement to have all employees at select sites have their temperatures checked upon arrival to work. If the person registers a temp over 100.4F, they will be sent home until they go three days without a fever. Clark said in the post that they are now checking temperatures of more than 100,000 employees a day.
Temperature checks is something that some private brand suppliers have been doing to combat the coronavirus in its plants, as told to Store Brands in its “From the Frontlines” series.
Clark also mentioned that in addition to the disinfectant wipes and hand sanitizer prevalent in working spaces, the company has ordered millions of N-95 masks. The company is also conducting daily audits on how safety measures are being executed.
Amazon previously announced it would be hiring 100,000 additional workers to meet the demand and investing more than $350 million to support employees during the crisis, which Clark reiterated in the post.
Like the Amazon walkouts at warehouses and the Whole Foods protest, Instacart also faced workers on strike. Instacart followed up with more safety measures, as well, including producing its own hand sanitizer for its Instacart shoppers. Store Brands has compiled various measures retailers are taking in this retailer roundup.