Amazon To Pay $500,000 Settlement For COVID-19 Violations
EASTVALE (CBSLA) — On Monday, California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced that Amazon will pay a $500,000 settlement after he accused the company of concealing COVID-19 numbers from their workers.
"Amazon's practices led to workers not knowing if they were exposed to 2, 20 or 200 cases of COVID-19," Bonta said. "This left many workers understandably terrified and powerless to make informed decisions to protect themselves and to protect their loved ones."
In addition to the $500,000, as part of the settlement, the retail giant has to now notify their employees of their potential exposure to the exact number of new COVID-19 cases in their workplace within one day. Amazon must also notify health agencies of coronavirus outbreaks within two days.
Amazon did not admit to any wrongdoing or liability but did say they were glad to resolve the situation and were pleased that Bonta found no substantive issues with their safety measures in their facilities.
Assembly Majority Leader Eloise Reyes Gomez, who represents the Inland Empire which contains thousands of distributions warehouses, believes this sends a clear message to other companies that fail or refuse to comply with safety laws.
"It also sends a message to CA workers that we will do what we can and must do to keep them safe at work," she added.