E-commerce taking measures to protect their employees from Corona

Amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic that continues to spread, companies in India are taking various measures to secure the supply chains and protect their employees.

E-commerce major Amazon said it “continues to work closely with authorities in India and worldwide to ensure that they are taking the right precautions and have implemented a series of preventative health measures for employees”.

All Amazon employees diagnosed with COVID-19 are placed under quarantine will receive up to two weeks of paid leave. This is in addition to unlimited unpaid time off for all hourly employees through the end of March.

The company said, “At the same time, we increased our cleaning of all facilities globally, including regular sanitization of all door handles, stairway handrails, elevator buttons, lockers, and touch screens”.

For safeguarding fulfillment network and delivery teams, Amazon has taken a series of steps including:

— Pausing visitor entry into fulfillment centers and increasing the frequency and intensity of cleaning at all operations sites across India.

— All associates are required to stay home and seek medical attention if they are feeling unwell.

— Continuing to raise awareness and educating employees and associates to adhere to preventive hygiene practices.

— Communicating that everyone must wash their hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, especially after going to the bathroom; before eating; and after blowing their nose, coughing, or sneezing.

Flipkart, on its part, has said that it “has initiated Business Continuity Planning for its supply chain organization and is ensuring that staff follows precautions and preventive measures”.

Flipkart said “We are taking all preventive measures as advised by WHO guidelines. All our warehouse and delivery partners are adhering to the WHO’s hand hygiene advisory during deliveries, using sanitiser to clean their hands. We are also constantly monitoring the health of our employees and delivery associates,” .

Across the supply chain and logistics network, the company said it has organised more than 3,000 awareness sessions covering over 100,000 employees across all facilities on how employees and partners can minimise their exposure by following simple precautionary measures.