Amazon will hire 75,000 new employees to meet new orders for essential products, which have spiked after restrictions on movement were put in place to curb the coronavirus outbreak.
The 75,000 new roles are in addition to the 100,000 new full- and part-time roles the company announced last month, which the e-commerce giant said have already been filled.
“We continue to see increased demand as our teams support their communities, and are going to continue to hire … creating an additional 75,000 jobs to help serve customers during this unprecedented time,” the company said in a blog post.
“Our original 100,000 jobs pledge is filled, and those new employees are working at sites across the US,” it said.
“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, and we welcome anyone out of work to join us until their past employer can bring them back,” it added.
The e-commerce giant is witnessing an overwhelming demand from customers placing online orders for packed foods and household goods as they avoid congested supermarkets and stores. Last month, the company warned customers of delivery delays due to a backlog of orders.
It has also increased the amount it said it will invest in pay increases and employee safety to $500 million (Dh1.8 billion), up from a previous estimate of $350m.
“We will invest in safety, pay and benefits for our teams who are playing an invaluable role in getting items to communities around the world,” the company said.
Amazon has faced criticism from trade unions for keeping facilities open and risking the safety of its employees during the pandemic. It has seen temporary strikes and workers staging walkouts in protest at the company’s decision to keep warehouses open as infections have occurred.
Amazon reported its first positive case of Covid-19 on March 18 at its New York facility and has since recorded infections in 50 other facilities, out of the more than 500 the company runs across the US.
Outside the US, five employees, working at Amazon’s warehouses in Spain and Italy, have also contracted the infection.
The company also faced public ire after a fulfillment centre employee accused Amazon of firing him after he led a strike at a warehouse in Staten Island, New York, protesting against inadequate safety measures.
“Taking action cost me my job,” Chris Smalls said in an interview. “Because I tried to stand up for something that’s right, the company decided to retaliate against me.”
To win the confidence of agitating employees, Amazon has since increased wages for hourly employees. It has also established a $25m fund focused on supporting the company’s independent delivery and service partners, their drivers and seasonal employees under financial distress due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The company has also paused its fulfillment centre public tours, cancelled large events and conducted most of its job interviews virtually rather than in-person.
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The years Ramadan fell in May
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The burning issue
The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE.
Read part four: an affection for classic cars lives on
Read part three: the age of the electric vehicle begins
Read part one: how cars came to the UAE
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The results of the first round are as follows:
Qais Saied (Independent): 18.4 per cent
Nabil Karoui (Qalb Tounes): 15.58 per cent
Abdelfattah Mourou (Ennahdha party): 12.88 per cent
Abdelkarim Zbidi (two-time defence minister backed by Nidaa Tounes party): 10.7 per cent
Youssef Chahed (former prime minister, leader of Long Live Tunisia): 7.3 per cent
Zayed Sustainability Prize
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
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MATCH INFO
Fixture: Ukraine v Portugal, Monday, 10.45pm (UAE)
TV: BeIN Sports
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
