Amazon Doubles Overtime Pay For Warehouse Staff

Yesterday, Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) announced its plan to raise overtime pay for staff working in its US warehouses, in an effort to respond to the rapidly-increasing demand for online shopping as people are stuck at home due to the coronavirus.

Amazon said it will double the pay for its hourly workers after 40 hours for overtime, compared to the previous 1.5-times rate. The overtime pay will last from March 15 through May 9, said the retail company in the announcement.

This is the second time the retail behemoth raised the hourly rate for its employees in a week. On March 16, Amazon announced the increase in the hourly rate for its staff to $17 from $15, and said it will recruit 100,000 warehouse and delivery workers in an effort to satisfy the fast-growing demand.

The company allowed unlimited time off without pay to workers who don’t feel well. Also, it took measures of staggered work hours and barred workers from sitting close to each other in the cafeteria in order to restrict contact.

However, four Democratic U.S. senators, including Cory Booker and Bernie Sanders issued a letter to the CEO of Amazon Jeff Bezos, voicing their concern that the company didn’t adopt sufficient measures to protect its warehouse workers. Additionally, the senators asked if Amazon would offer 1.5-times hazard pay for its employees.

Jeff Bezos published an online post yesterday, saying that Amazon has ordered “millions” of face masks for its warehouse workers, however, not all orders have been fulfilled because there is a shortage of masks and hospitals and governments have the priority.

On Thursday, Amazon reported the first confirmed case as a worker in one of the US warehouses tested positive, forcing Amazon to temporarily close the facility.