Amazon settles California COVID dispute over workers notification

SACRAMENTO — Amazon has agreed to pay $500,000 and be monitored by California officials to ensure it properly notifies its workers about new coronavirus cases, the state’s attorney general said Monday.

Amazon employs about 150,000 people in California, most of them at 100 “fulfillment centers” — sprawling warehouses where orders are packed and shipped. The agreement, which must be approved by a judge, requires the Seattle-based retailer to notify its workers within a day of new coronavirus cases in their workplaces.

Amazon also agreed to notify local health agencies of new virus cases within 48 hours and will stop issuing notices that Attorney General Rob Bonta said do not adequately tell employees about Amazon’s safety and disinfection plan and workers’ rights related to the pandemic.

“As the company enjoyed booming and historic sales with its stock price doubling, Amazon failed to adequately notify warehouse workers and local health agencies of COVID-19 case numbers, often leaving them 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 added: “This left many workers understandably terrified and powerless to make informed decisions to protect themselves and to protect their loved ones,” like getting tested for the virus, staying home or quarantining if they’ve been notified of a potential workplace exposure.

Amazon spokesperson Barbara Agrait said in a statement that the company was “glad to have this resolved and to see that the AG found no substantive issues with the safety measures in our buildings.”

In October 2020, the company said that nearly 20,000 of its front-line U.S. workers had tested positive or presumed infected.