In the recent buzz around the E-commerce giant Amazon, four Senators from the different states of the US including Cory Booker (New Jersey), Bob Menendez (New Jersey), Bernie Sanders (Vermont) and Sherrod Brown (Ohio) seemed to have issued a letter to the company head Jeff for not allowing their warehouse workers to on a sick leave on the wake of coronavirus outbreak. Writing the letter to the company CEO the senators have asked the company to pay the half hazard pay to the worker along with allowing to avail all the preventive measurements in the coming time.
The letter asked the company CEO to consider their plea as they do not have the authority to put the life of the workers at stake when the entire country seems to be passing through the crisis. The letter said that people in the US are taking all the required precautions that can affect them with the COVID 19 and thus Amazon’s decision to prioritize things like efficiency and revenue should overshadow factors like safety and well-being of its employees. They issued a list of concerns before the company CEO about the info regarding the Amazon they intend to take while protecting the employees when it comes to talking about the infection along with the deadline from the company to respond by 26th March.
The letter has even demanded the company to consider the cost of the tests to be made for the workers as they could have been the victim of the virus and that it would be fair to take care of this aspect rather than worrying more about their disciplinary measures and its “strident efficiency” for giving the workers enough time to clean their hands by various means. The senators went on to ask if Bezos intended to consider temporary shutdown of the facility and help their workers get tested for the virus and if tested positive for the same they need to consider the cost of their treatment as well.
On the other side, the Amazon spokesman was seen denying the accusations as laid down by the senators in their letters it said the company is doing enough as the preventive measurement along with taking care of the well being of its employees to keep them safe and tripling with deep cleaning and other precautionary methods. They are allowing the warehouse employees to stay safe by going with the preventive measurements, staying in safe distance and so on. He called the employees as their heroes and they are working for the welfare of its customers and standing for communities who need their services the most during their bad times. He did say that during the vulnerable time, the company stands tall for company employees. The company informed the media the kind of proactive methods they are using to secure their workforce. These include giving cleaning aid facilities and asking them to work in safe distances rather than in teams.