On Saturday, Amazon Inc. sent a notice to its workers in America, which said that workers who tested positive for Covid-19 would not get paid leave. Its front line U.S. workers will now get up to 5 days of excused leave, which would be unpaid. This new policy will begin from Monday. The notice also said that workers would no longer have time off excused, to wait for Covid test results as rapid tests are widely available.
The company said in the notice that the “sustained easing of the pandemic” as well as the easy “availability of COVID-19 vaccines” as well as treatments were among the reasons why the company was adjusting its policies. It also mentioned that public health authorities had updated their guidance and this lead to an easing of the earlier norms.
Earlier, the company offered up to two weeks of leave with pay to any employee who got COVID-19 or was quarantined. In January, Amazon decreased the paid leave to one week or to 40 hours. Now, there is absolutely no leave with pay. However, a spokesperson told CNBC that employees could avail their sick time off, if they wanted.
Another new policy to be adopted by Amazon will be to stop sending notifications of Covid positive cases in its facilities across sites, unless it is a legal requirement. Incentives that used to be offered by the company to boost vaccination among its employees would also be stopped.
On Friday, a Staten Island, New York Amazon warehouse closed its union drive. On May 2, the National Labor Board will count the ballots. This is the second high stakes union drive at another Amazon warehouse in New York’s Staten Island, the LDJ5 warehouse. One warehouse already voted for unionization.
The latest move by Amazon, to cut the paid leave benefits for its front line workers one day after voting closed, is bound to get a strong response from pro-union workers who already have a long list of complaints against the e-commerce giant’s policies.
Image Twitter Amazon Workers
