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Amazon Awards Bonuses To Frontline Workers After Ending Pandemic Pay Raises

Frontline employees who worked for Amazon for the entire month of June are being rewarded with one-time bonuses that will cost the company a total of $500 million, according to a June 29 note to employees from Dave Clark, SVP of Worldwide Operations for Amazon.

As of June 1, Amazon’s frontline employees stopped receiving the $2 per hour pay increase that had been instituted at the beginning of the pandemic.

Full-time employees working in Amazon fulfillment centers or Whole Foods Markets are receiving $500 each, while part-timers are getting $250. Managers at the fulfillment centers and stores are receiving $1,000.

In addition, Delivery Service Partners, who are independent business owners operating fleets of Amazon vans, are receiving $3,000 each, and their delivery drivers are entitled to the same payments as the full-time and part-time Amazon employees. Amazon Flex drivers who worked more than 10 hours during the month are entitled to $150.

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“Our frontline operations teams have been on an incredible journey over the last few months, and we want to show our appreciation with a special one-time thank-you bonus,” Clark wrote.

While Clark’s note offered “thanks and gratitude for the truly remarkable commitment to customers you have shown throughout this journey,” he did not mention COVID-19 nor refer to the health risks frontline workers have taken on. Eight workers in Amazon fulfillment centers have died from the coronavirus, according to NBC News.

The same day as Clark’s announcement, the German services union Verdi called a strike at six Amazon sites to protest the company’s inability to safeguard staff from coronavirus infection, according to a report. “We are increasing the pressure because Amazon has so far shown no openness and endangers the health of employees,” the union said in a statement. 

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