Quarantined Amazon Workers Haven't Been Paid Despite Company Promise

It seems odd that Amazon would not seize the opportunity to gain some relatively inexpensive goodwill, but it's abusive approach to employees and indifference to public opinion remains a dominant feature of its reputation.

The question is whether that may prove to be smart or shortsighted when the crisis is over. JL


Caroline O'Donovan reports in Buzzfeed:

Under increasing public pressure over its response to the coronavirus pandemic, Amazon has repeatedly said that employees “placed into quarantine” will receive up to two weeks of pay. But Amazon workers around the country on physician-ordered quarantine because of the pandemic say they have not been paid. Amazon officials said that all employees placed into quarantine by a doctor will eventually receive two weeks of full pay.

Under increasing public pressure over its response to the coronavirus pandemic, Amazon has repeatedly said that employees “placed into quarantine” will receive up to two weeks of pay. But internal company guidelines from late last month have no provision for paying employees whose doctor has quarantined them but who have not received an official diagnosis. And Amazon workers around the country on physician-ordered quarantine because of the pandemic say they have not been paid.

In response to questions from BuzzFeed News about its payment policies for employees under quarantine, Amazon officials late Thursday evening said those March 20 documents are old and that all employees placed into quarantine by a doctor will eventually receive two weeks of full pay.

Amazon, which employs hundreds of thousands of workers in its warehouses and has seen a surge in business during the pandemic because customers can’t go to traditional stores, also said that any failure to pay employees who are at home in physician-ordered quarantine was an error.

But seven employees around the country told BuzzFeed News they haven’t been paid and can’t get answers from Amazon’s human resources department about their cases. They also report widespread confusion about the company’s policies.

One employee at a warehouse in Florida, Donna, who asked to be identified only by her first name out of fear of retaliation, said she was told by a doctor to stay home and quarantine after she developed a cough, a headache, and chest pain. Donna reported her case to her human resources manager and provided the doctor’s note. But instead of paying her, she said, her human resources manager told her to contact the company’s Disability and Leave Services team. That team did not accept her original doctor’s note. Instead, they gave her more paperwork to be filled out by a doctor. But by the time that happened, Donna was no longer sick and unable to contact her doctor, who was busy during the pandemic.

“They just ignored the [doctor’s] note, dragged it on for weeks, [and] now I can’t find a [doctor] that will fill out [the] paperwork,” she said.

Even worse, being put on a leave of absence caused her to lose a promotion she was expecting and the raise that went along with it. As the sole breadwinner in her household, she said it has been financially devastating.

“My car will most likely get repo’ed since I couldn't pay it,” she said. “I managed to use every penny to pay rent. I'm so behind in bills now. ” This week, Donna began trying to sell her collection of vintage My Little Pony dolls to raise money.

Many employees say cases like Donna’s illustrate a disconnect between Amazon’s public messaging about its policies on paid leave and what is actually happening.

In a March 11 blog post, Amazon Senior Vice President of Human Resources Beth Galetti wrote, “Effective immediately, all Amazon employees diagnosed with COVID-19 or placed into quarantine will receive up to two-weeks of pay.”

But on March 20, Amazon sent instructions to its on-site human resources employees in at least two warehouses that muddied that promise, leaving some of them confused about the company’s compensation rules during the health crisis.

Those instructions, shared with BuzzFeed News by an HR employee who requested anonymity out of concern for retaliation, said that employees quarantined by the government or by Amazon will be paid for “up to 14 days Non-Working Paid Time.” But employees who are in “physician-directed quarantine or self-isolation,” by contrast, would only qualify for two weeks of paid time off “If COVID diagnosis or presumptive.”

The two HR employees said the written policy doesn’t say whether employees who stayed home with symptoms on a doctor’s orders but later tested negative for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, would get paid. It also fails to provide guidance on whether to pay someone who had symptoms but was never diagnosed either due to a shortage of tests or a doctor’s recommendation that they avoid medical facilities while contagious. Finally, it says that employees caring for a dependent or spouse who has tested positive may use vacation time but would not get paid leave.

Asked to comment on this story, an Amazon spokesperson said the March 20 documents may no longer be current and that “all Amazon employees diagnosed with COVID-19 or placed into quarantine by Amazon, a doctor or a government agency, receive two weeks of full pay.”

Jay Carney, Amazon’s senior vice president of global corporate affairs, told the New York Times on April 5 that, due to the shortage of COVID-19 tests in the United States, Amazon had ”made it clear that the additional paid time off applied to people who had suspected they had Covid.”

Still, the two HR employees who spoke with BuzzFeed News this week said they haven’t received an update regarding the policy.

Andre Matteson, who works at a warehouse near Portland, Oregon, was sent home by Amazon on March 22 with a cough and told to see a doctor before he came back. Matteson said Amazon told him he’d be paid for the time off as long as he provided a doctor’s note; he went home and called a doctor, who told him he could be having symptoms of COVID-19 and provided a note instructing him to quarantine for at least a week. His symptoms didn’t worsen and he was never tested; when he went back to work, he was told that to get paid he’d have to go home and apply for a leave of absence.

“I said, ‘You never told me that last week! You just said [to] provide you with the letter and I could return to work. I self-quarantined as you told me to do!’” Matteson said. “I still need to get paid.”

Matteson said Amazon probably owes him more than $500, but trying to get that money has so far entailed “jumping through one hoop after another.” He called Amazon’s promise to pay workers put in quarantine “really just a public relations thing.”

An Amazon HR staffer based in Missouri said there was confusion among staff about the discrepancy between the company’s public statements and the guidelines they were given on March 20.

"The original announcement ... did say if you’re quarantined or feel the need to quarantine you would get paid, but that was never adjusted internally,” that human resources employee said. “We’re answering a lot of questions [from] associates saying, ‘This is what the website says,’ and when we reached out to our management or leave teams, they were saying, ‘No, it’s not happening.’ People get really upset."