INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Image copyrightHardy Wilson/AmazonRetail giant Amazon says it will build its own coronavirus testing lab to monitor the health of its
staff.Cases of Covid-19 have been reported at more than 50 Amazon facilities across the US
Some have involved multiple infected workers.The company said it had assembled a team to build its own "incremental testing capacity".Amazon
staff have previously criticised the firm over its response to the coronavirus pandemic.In March, Amazon fired a New York warehouse worker
who organised a protest over a lack of safety precautions taken by the company.Image copyrightHardy Wilson/AmazonImage caption
Amazon says its team is gathering the necessary equipment for a test lab
In a statement, Amazon said "We did not
terminate Mr Smalls' employment for organizing a 15-person protest
We terminated his employment for putting the health and safety of others at risk and violations of his terms of his employment
Mr Smalls received multiple warnings for violating social distancing guidelines." Later, a memo from a meeting of Amazon executives was
It said: "We should spend the first part of our response strongly laying out the case for why the organiser's conduct was immoral,
unacceptable, arguably illegal, in detail, and only then follow with our usual talking points about worker safety."Amazon blogged it had
made more than 150 "significant process changes" in response to coronavirus."Our operations sites and grocery stores are distributing masks
to employees and conducting employee temperature checks," the company said."A next step might be regular testing of all employees, including
those showing no symptoms
Regular testing on a global scale across all industries would both help keep people safe and help get the economy back up and running."The
company acknowledged that testing resources were limited, so it had assembled a team of employees to develop its own facility."We have begun
assembling the equipment we need to build our first lab and hope to start testing small numbers of our front line employees soon
We are not sure how far we will get in the relevant timeframe, but we think it's worth trying, and we stand ready to share anything we learn
with others."According to news site Bloomberg, at least one Amazon facility is being investigated by the US Occupational Safety and Health
Administration over concerns it has not done enough to safeguard employees.The Pennsylvania warehouse receives products from manufacturer
before sending them to smaller Amazon warehouses around the US.
