Charlotte-area Amazon employees concerned about workplace conditions

CHARLOTTE — Employees at area Amazon facilities have been calling and emailing Channel 9 saying they are concerned about the potential spread of the coronavirus inside their workplace.

[Layoffs hit Amazon facilities in Charlotte, Durham]

There have been two confirmed positive case at local Amazon facilities – one at the Concord sorting center and the other at the Charlotte distribution center on Old Dowd Road.

Employees told Channel 9 it is difficult to practice social distancing while at work.

An employee said more than 500 people work each shift and it’s impossible to stay 6 feet apart.

Some said the facilities should shut down for a while.

"I think it would be best if they just closed the Amazon down for at least two weeks, clean it, let people go home with pay, with their families and then reopen it,” said an employee, who did not want to be identified.

An Amazon spokesperson sent Channel 9 a news release:

We are supporting the individuals who are recovering. We are following guidelines from health officials and medical experts, and are taking extreme measures to ensure the safety of employees at our site. Our employees are heroes fighting for their communities and helping people get critical items they need in this crisis—we have nearly 500,000 people in the U.S. alone supporting customers and we are taking measures to support each one. We’ve implemented a broad suite of new benefits changes for employees in our operations and logistics network including an additional $2 per hour, double time for overtime, and paid time off benefits for regular part-time and seasonal employees. We are encouraging those who are unwell to stay home and taking extreme measures to keep people safe in our buildings. And, since the early days of this situation, we have worked closely with health authorities to proactively respond, ensuring we continue to serve customers while taking care of our associates and teams. We have also implemented proactive measures at our facilities to protect employees including increased cleaning at all facilities, maintaining social distance in the FC, and adding distance between drivers and customers when making deliveries.

On-Background:

• We alert any associate who had close contact at our building with an employee diagnosed with COVID-19 and ask them to not return to the site and to self-quarantine for 14-days, and we pay them for their time at home.
• We have made employees at the sites aware of all confirmed cases.
• When a COVID-19 case is confirmed in one of our buildings, we communicate this news to all individuals who work at that site —not just to those who’ve come in close contact with the diagnosed individual.
• All Amazon employees diagnosed with COVID-19 or placed into quarantine receive up to two weeks of pay. This additional pay while away from work is to ensure employees have the time they need to return to good health without the worry of lost income. This is in addition to unlimited unpaid time off for all hourly employees through the end of April.
• We are evaluating several factors when considering how to handle the closure of building for deep cleaning, including consulting with health authorities and medical experts. Our process also evaluates where the employee was in the building, for how long, how much time has passed since they were onsite, and who they interacted with, among other items. If someone hasn’t been at the building for quite some time, they were onsite only briefly, or the area they were in was already deep cleaned several times as a regular course of business, we may not need to close.
• We have implemented a series of preventative health measures for employees, delivery and transportation partners at our sites around the world. These measures include:
• Increased the frequency and intensity of cleaning at all sites including regular sanitization of all door handles, stairway handrails, elevator buttons, lockers, and touch screens, to name a few.
• Adjusted practices to ensure social distancing within our buildings, including:
• No stand-up meetings during shifts – all business essential information will be shared via boards near main areas and through conversations with managers, or HR team members
• Moving chairs and spreading out tables in breakrooms
• Shift start times and break times are being staggered to promote social distancing
• Suspended exit screening until further notice to ensure ease of movement near main entrances
• Enabled temporary cell phone process for those who need to be in contact with their families or childcare providers
• Training will take place in small formats and with in-app training tools and other equipment

· Requiring employees to stay home and seek medical attention if they are feeling unwell and have adjusted attendance policies to support this.

· Requiring employees to sanitize and clean their work stations and vehicles at the start and end of every shift with disinfectant/cleaning wipes.

· Asked employees to defer non-essential travel.

· Moved to video-based interviews for the majority of our candidate interviews.

· Communicated to employees that everyone must wash their hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, especially after going to the bathroom; before eating; and after blowing their nose, coughing, or sneezing. If soap and water are not readily available, use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol.

· The millions of masks we ordered weeks ago are now available in about half of the network and should be available everywhere by later today.

On Packages: Based on guidance from the CDC, the World Health Organization, and the Surgeon General, there is currently no evidence that COVID-19 is being spread through packages. It’s a belief within the infectious disease community that if there was transmission through packages there would have been immediate global spread early in the outbreak, that did not happen and it confirms the risk as incredibly low.

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