Amazon founder Jeff Bezos highlighted various measures the e-commerce giant is taking to address the Covid-19 crisis in the company’s annual shareholder letter for 2020 on Thursday. Here are some key steps taken by the world’s largest online retailer:
- Removed 0.5 million offers due to COVID-based price gouging and suspended more than 6,000 selling accounts globally. Shared information about sellers suspected of price gouging to 42 state attorneys general offices.
- A team of Amazon employees are building the company’s first lab to increase the testing capacity. Plans to start testing small numbers of its frontline employees soon.
- Over 150 significant process changes in Amazon’s operations network and Whole Foods Market stores to help teams stay healthy. Distributed face masks and implemented temperature checks at sites around the world to help protect employees and support staff.
- Committed $20 million to AWS Diagnostic Development Initiative, to support customers working to bring more accurate COVID-19 diagnostic solutions to market. Plans to fund more diagnostic research projects that have the potential to blunt future infectious disease outbreaks.
- Raised minimum wage by $2/hour in US & Canada, £2/hour in the UK and €2 per hour in several European countries through April-end. Associates are being paid double their regular rate for any overtime with a minimum of $34/hour. This will cost Amazon more than $500 million.
- Established Amazon Relief Fund with $25 million initial funding to support service partners and their drivers, Amazon Flex participants, and temporary employees under financial distress.
- Hiring 100,000 people across its fulfillment and delivery network and 75,000 people to respond to customer demand.
- A public AWS COVID-19 data lake made available as a centralized repository for up-to-date and curated information related to the virus spread, characteristics, and its associated illness. Experts can access and analyze the latest data in their battle against the disease.
- Temporarily closed Amazon Books, Amazon 4-star, and Amazon Pop Up stores in the US
- Eliminated stand-up meetings during shifts, staggered break times. Every new employee gets six hours of safety training.
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