Amazon is Telling its Employees to Work From Home

As COVID-19 coronavirus spreads, tech giant Amazon has told its employees all around the world that if they can work from home, they should.

Not long ago the company had told employees in several cities such as Seattle and New York, to work remotely. Now this request is applied to all employees all over.

“We continue to work closely with public and private medical experts to ensure we are taking the right precautions as the situation continues to evolve,” an Amazon spokesperson told CNBC. “As a result, we are now recommending that all of our employees globally who are able to work from home do so through the end of March.”

As of Thursday evening, there were more than 127,800 confirmed cases of the virus worldwide and at least 4,718 deaths. The U.S. has at least 1,323 confirmed cases and at least 38 deaths.

Amazon’s directive applies to all employees whose work requires them to be in an office, store, fulfillment center or in vehicles making deliveries.

The company said it would continue to pay all of its hourly employees that support its offices around the world. This includes food service employees, security guards and janitorial staff.

Unlike employees at Amazon’s corporate offices, many fulfillment center employees and delivery drivers cannot carry out their job duties while working from home. In response, Amazon has launched a $25 million relief fund. The “Amazon Relief Fund” which will allow these employees to apply for grants that are equal to or up to two weeks of pay if they’re diagnosed with the novel coronavirus, or COVID-19.

Disclaimer: We have no position in Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) and have not been compensated for this article.