Sacramento, California: The state attorney general said Monday that Amazon has agreed to pay $500,000 and is being monitored by California officials to ensure it keeps its employees informed about new coronavirus cases. Please inform me properly.
Amazon employs about 150,000 people in California, most of them in warehouses spread across 100 fulfillment centers where orders are packed and shipped. The settlement, which must be approved by a judge, requires the Seattle-based retailer to notify its employees within one day of new coronavirus cases in their workplaces.
Amazon also agreed to notify local health agencies of cases of the new virus within 48 hours and will stop issuing notices that Attorney General Rob Bonta said to employees about Amazon’s safety and disinfection plan and workers related to the pandemic. Do not adequately describe the rights of
As the company enjoyed rapid and historic sales with its stock price doubling, Amazon failed to adequately inform warehouse workers and local health agencies about COVID-19 case numbers, often calling them That leaves it unable to effectively track the spread of the virus, Bonta told reporters in San. Francisco at an event held across the street from an Amazon warehouse.
Bonta said: This left many workers quite frightened and powerless to make informed decisions to protect themselves and protect their loved ones, “such as getting tested for the virus, staying home or being notified of potential workplace exposure.” to be quarantined.
Amazon spokeswoman Barbara Agrit said in a statement that the company is pleased to resolve this and that AG has found no real problems with the security measures in our buildings.
Former California Attorney General Javier Becerra, who now heads the US Department of Health and Human Services, asked a judge last December to order Amazon as part of an investigation into how the company is protecting its employees. As was issued to his office about four months ago. Coronavirus at your facilities.
The state attorney general’s office first disclosed the investigation in a July 2020 filing in the San Francisco Superior Court case in which an employee accused the company of not doing enough to protect employees.
It is not known how many Amazon employees have been exposed to the virus at work during the pandemic. In October 2020, the company revealed that nearly 20,000 of its front-line US employees had tested positive or were thought to be infected.
The decision, which only applies in California, required the company to pay a half-million-dollar settlement by the attorney general’s office to allow monitoring of its virus information for one year and enforce the states’ consumer protection laws. is needed.
Bonta said it was the first of its kind in the US and complies with the state’s right to know law that came into force last year. The condition was signed on Friday and both the complaint and the condition were filed in Sacramento County Superior Court on Monday.
California’s law, sponsored by Assembly Majority Leader Eloise Gamez Reyes, calls on employers to notify employees of coronavirus cases at their workplaces, inform workers about pandemic-related safety, benefits, disinfection and protection plans, and report cases to local health agencies. need to.
Gamez Reyes said his bill was implemented after lawmakers heard stories from workers who were not told they might be exposed. Many California companies have complied, she said, but some found flaws and either failed or chose not to comply with the law.
Amazon is gearing up for the holiday crush of package delivery. Bonta said compliance is especially important as the state prepares for another potential winter surge in cases as people gather indoors for the holidays.
California also this year became the first state to ban large retailers from firing warehouse workers for missing quotas that interfere with bathrooms and rest breaks.
That law prohibits Amazon and similar companies from disciplining employees for complying with health and safety laws, and allows employees to sue employees to suspend unsecured quotas or reverse retaliation.
Disclaimer: This post has been self-published from the agency feed without modification and has not been reviewed by an editor
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