Amazon, one of the biggest e-commerce company in the world, currently employees close to 800,000 people across the world. Now, this means that the effect of any pandemic has to be felt by them since they are spread across the world.
For this reason, Amazon has now released guidance which states that its employees should work from home through the end of March if possible. The company has used the optional clause because of the fact that it is a delivery company apart from e-commerce company so it requires employees to be on the road as well.
As per a statement from Amazon, its spokesperson says that “We continue to work closely with public and private medical experts to ensure we are taking the right precautions as the situation continues to evolve,”. “As a result, we are now recommending that all of our employees globally who are able to work from home do so through the end of March.”
This is in addition to an earlier statement from Amazon as they promised to “provide two weeks of extra paid time off for full and part-time employees who are diagnosed with COVID-19 or placed into quarantine”.
Apart from that, Amazon will also give unlimited unpaid time off for all hourly employees through the end of March. Also, Amazon “will continue to pay all hourly employees, including food service, janitorial and security staff, who support its offices around the world” as per the statement.
While Amazon is not the first company to tell its employees to work from home or give them paid leave, it is one of the biggest to do so. Earlier, Shopify also did the same with its employees while even giving them an additional $1000 for work-from-home setups. This is after a call from WHO to slow down the spread of COVID-19
