Amazon lifts ‘non-essential’ product ban & plans to hire another 75,000 staff to meet lockdown demand

AMAZON has announced that it will now lift its ‘non-essential’ product ban and will hire another 75,000 staff to meet huge demand, particularly from countries in lockdown.

Since mid-March, the global company restricted non-essential products from entering its warehouses as it was focusing on ‘essentials,’ such as household staples and medical supplies, but it said it will now accept some ‘non-essential’ products.

“Later this week we will allow more products into our fulfilment centres,” said Amazon on Monday. “Products will be limited by quantity to enable us to continue prioritising products and protecting employees, while also ensuring most selling partners can ship goods into our facilities.”

Amazon also plans to hire another 75,000 staff, after hiring 100,000 staff just last month to meet huge demand, particularly from countries in lockdown. “We know many people have been economically impacted as jobs in areas like hospitality, restaurants and travel are lost or furloughed as part of this crisis,” stated Amazon. “We welcome anyone out of work to join us at Amazon until things return to normal and their past employer is able to bring them back.”

It announced that it would expand its temporary $2 hourly raise to more staff. The company also promised to test workers for Covid-19 last week, after complaints that it wasn’t doing enough to protect its staff. “To date, we’ve made over 150 significant process changes at sites around the world to ensure the health and safety of our teams,” confirmed Amazon. These include distributing masks to employees and conducting employee temperature checks.