Amazon says it may fire workers who violate social distancing guidelines
“We’ve had some instances of employees intentionally violating our clear guidelines on social distancing at our sites, which endangers both the individual and their colleagues,” said Amazon spokesperson Rachael Lighty in a statement to CNN. “On the second documented offense, termination may occur.” The company did not provide examples of the intentional violations.
(Smalls has told CNN that the protest, which he helped organize, was intended to persuade Amazon to close the facility for deep cleaning. He said he feels he was unfairly targeted by the company for retribution.)
But Mario Crippen, an employee at an Amazon facility in Romulus, Mich., told CNN that much of what workers do on the job cannot be done while social distancing.
“In the packing department, there are no walls, so people are really shoulder-to-shoulder,” he said in a phone interview with CNN last week. “And then, in the dock … sometimes there are two people inside the truck, and they can’t get away from each other. The computers they need to run the dock are right next to each other. The way stuff works, you’ve got to be close to get things done and get packages out.”
Meanwhile, a worker at Amazon’s Staten Island facility said the company sent a text message to employees this week that read: “We recommend everyone wears a facemask of some kind covering their nose and mouth from arrival through departure of your shift.” The company has signage in the facility about picking up facemasks and how to properly use them, which features identical language, according to the worker.
In response, the employee — who asked not to be named for fear of retribution — expressed a disconnect over the various policies.
“An employee will be written up if they don’t observe social distancing, but facemask usage is only recommended?” the employee said in a message to CNN.
Amazon declined to respond to multiple questions from CNN asking the company to explain its termination policy in light of the required working conditions described by Crippen and others.
CNN Business’ Sara Ashley O’Brien contributed to this report.