Amazon has told employees in two major markets — New York and New Jersey — to abide home until at least the oddment of the month amid refreshing coronavirus care , the company confirmed to Gizmodo on Monday .
“ We continue to work intimately with public and secret medical experts to ensure we are hire the right forethought as the situation continues to acquire , ” a voice told Gizmodo via electronic mail . “ This includes recommend that employee who are able to work from home in Seattle / Bellevue , the Bay Area , New York , New Jersey and the Lombardy region / Asti state of Italy do so through the end of March . ”
Amazon did not comment on how many employee this is likely to impact , or which divisions of its sprawl business it look at able to work remotely .
Photo: Getty
The eruption of the disease due to the novel coronavirus , COVID-19 , first surged in the U.S. in Washington state , home to Amazon ’s main office , which has136 confirmed incontrovertible cases and 18 deathsrelated to the unwellness . In New York , the number of confirmed casesrose on Monday to 142 , including 19 in New York City . New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy say in atweetthat the number of “ presume positive ” case in his land is now 11 . More than 600 multitude areconfirmedto have contract the illness across the U.S.
Last week , an employee in Amazon ’s Seattle home office testedpositivefor the virus , leading to the first undulation of power law of closure . Like other company , it has been suggest workers to specify strange and domestic travel , and asGizmodo learnedlate last calendar month , took the additional precaution of replacing some in - soul interviews with practical 1 .
This weekend , Amazon also sent notice widely to its warehouses that policies around recreational prison term off ( UPT ) and attendance power point would be relaxed , though the specific are not entirely exculpated . UPT is a bank of time , measure in whole minute , that prole take off without coach approval — and which often ensue in dismission once it attain zero ; attendance breaker point are a related to metric for measuring tardiness , normally ascribed to part - fourth dimension warehouse workers . Both are part of awage - and - hour policyendemic to Amazon and pretty much only Amazon .
No similarconsiderationsseem to be in place for Amazon ’s declarer workforce — like its fleet of Flex driver — though the reception to coronavirus by gig work platforms has become a distributor point of contention , thanks in part toa salvo of lettersfrom Senator Mark Warner calling for something consanguineal to wellness policy or macabre leave . While Flex drivers likely amount into less direct contact than some other main couriers , New York has already confirmedone Uber driverhas tested positive for COVID-19 .
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