Amazon to help UK business reopen as its US employees take legal action over COVID measures
The web marketplace will show UK business how to keep workers safe but its US employees say it is failing to live up to its words.
Friday 5 June 2020 15:45, UK
Amazon has joined forces with the British Chambers of Commerce to offer advice to businesses on how to return to work safely.
It comes as many non-essential shops prepare to re-open, having been closed since the middle of March as part of government restrictions designed to limit the spread of the coronavirus.
Under the arrangement, 1,000 UK businesses can tour Amazon's UK fulfilment centres to see what Amazon says are more than 150 "significant" process changes to ensure health and safety among staff.
Many businesses are struggling with the requirements of reopening, including social distancing rules.
BCC director general Dr Adam Marshall said: "Businesses will be taking a safe, risk-based approach to returning to work, in close consultation with their staff, but for many this will be an entirely new way of working."
Amazon UK operations regional director Stuart Morgan said: "Nothing is more important to us than making sure that we protect the health of our teams, and we've been working around the clock since the early days of the outbreak to make changes to our processes and procure the necessary supplies for this."
But it also comes as a group of Amazon workers at a fulfilment centre in Staten Island in New York launch legal action calling for changes in their workplace to stop the spread of COVID-19.
The three employees and three members of their households say they fear for their health and lives, alleging operations at the facility are not in line with public health guidance.
The workers claim that the company's leave policies incentivise staff to come to work when they are ill and to disregard proper health precautions during their shifts.
They are not seeking financial damages, aside from back pay for paid quarantine leave.
But they are calling for the courts to force Amazon to implement measures such as a leave policy encouraging workers to stay home when they have COVID-19 symptoms without the threat of losing their job and an increase in the allowance for "time off task" so workers can wash their hands and clear their work stations.
They are also calling for Amazon to follow public health guidance for contact tracing after a worker tests positive for the virus.
Derrick Palmer, one of the plaintiffs, said: "Workers at Amazon's JFK8 facility are asking a court to enforce public health guidance at our workplace because we've seen how the company's current leave and break policies and failure to do thorough contact tracing of ill workers' interactions have put all of us at risk."
An Amazon spokesman told Sky News: "We are saddened by the tragic impact COVID-19 has had on communities across the globe, including on some Amazon team members and their family and friends.
"From early March to 1 May, we offered our employees unlimited time away from work, and since 1 May we have offered leave for those most vulnerable or who need to care for children or family members.
"We also invested $4bn from April to June on COVID-related initiatives, including over $800m in the first half of this year on safety measures like temperature checks, masks, gloves, enhanced cleaning and sanitisation, extended pay and benefits options, testing, and more. This includes two weeks paid leave for any COVID diagnosis or quarantine, and launching a $25m fund to support our partners and contractors."