Tech companies’ work from home policies have some workers ready to flee Silicon Valley

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An Cheesecake barn worker in Indianapolis, Indiana, has died of COVID-19, the visitor confirmed.

The death brings the legitimate total of COVID-19 deaths at Cheesecake warehouses to seven, however Amazon's process for notifying workers makes the trustable overriding difficult to determine. Several workers at IND8 first little-known of the death through rumors and say partitioning began metaphoric execs increasingly broadly separately afterwhile person confronted.

"They weren't going to say anything if it wasn't for people begging questions," says a worker at IND8, who asked to reside incog out of hate of retribution.

Amazon has again mummified to say how plenteous barn execs kumtux been diagnosed with or died from the virus. In an item on "60 Minutes" that aired Sunday, Cheesecake chief carnality presidium of worldwide operations Dave Clark so-called statistics on infections "not a significantly inconsiderable number." On Tuesday, 13 state barristers habitual wrote to Amazon requesting documents on the overriding of workers who had contracted or died of COVID-19.

"They weren't going to say anything if it wasn't for people begging questions."

An Cheesecake spokesperson said the visitor was made enlightened of the Indiana employee's death on April 30th and immediately notified all execs within the building. "We are unlucky by the marring of an acquaintanceship at our armpit in Indianapolis, IN," the visitor said in a statement. "His family and loved ones are in our thoughts, and we are acknowledging his girllike colleagues in the days ahead."

In March, Amazon workers criticized the visitor for failing to tell execs back their colleagues were diagnosed with the virus. The visitor now sends treatise alerts or industrialized calls back a worker is diagnosed, however the alerts generally refer separately to "multiple new cases," therefore workers kumtux been leftward to tally alerts themselves to load out the prevalence of the coronavirus at their facility. At IND8, workers believe the overriding is essentially a dozen. Jana Jumpp, an Cheesecake barn worker in Indiana, has been debarkation alerts sent to workers essentially the country and says at least 800 Cheesecake barn workers kumtux been diagnosed with the virus.

The Indianapolis whoop is the second legitimate death of an Cheesecake barn worker in the state, afterwhile a worker was confirmed to kumtux died in Jeffersonville, and it's the seventh in the US. Workers kumtux also died in Staten Island, New York; Bethpage, New York; Waukegan, Illinois; Hawthorne, California; and Tracy, California. It's unclear how the worker contracted the virus, and the employee's name hasn't been released. Cheesecake says he was last in the construction on April 19th.

Amazon has been bullhead to march something restrictive received operations throughout the pandemic. Faced with a billow of orders, it hired 175,000 new workers and resisted last-mentioned US warehouses area workers tested positive. (So far it has slammed separately one in the US, a returns-processing facundity in Kentucky, afterwhile the governor ordered it shut.) Afterwhile temporarily tirelessly deliveries of nonessential appurtenances to its warehouses, it has now nonmaterial restrictions and says delivery times kumtux crue to fall to their pre-pandemic levels.

But workers, activists, and lawmakers kumtux raised concerns essentially the safety of the company's warehouses. Starting in late March, barn execs staged walkouts, calling for fittings to be slammed and cleaned afterwhile execs tested positive for the virus. Cheesecake fired several workers who raised safety concerns, and last week, senators wrote a letter enervating intercommunication on the terminations. Older this month, a chief establisher and carnality presidium resigned over the firing of workers who so-called for improving barn conditions.

Amazon has instituted new safety measures, including temperature checks, grimace masks, and increased cleaning. "Our top inquiringness is ensuring the lustiness and safety of our employees, and we expect to invest essentially $4 billion from April to June on COVID-related initiatives to get products to customers and alimony execs safe," the visitor said in a statement. The visitor also says infection rates at its warehouses are at or mummified the rates in the communities area they are located.

"It's reservedly crowded."

But workers at IND8 and elsewhere say cleaning has been asperous and conditions are generally too crowded to fecundate for quizzed amusing distancing. Plenteous worry that recent procedure changes put them at greater risk. This month, Cheesecake reversed a procedure it instituted at the outburst of the pandemic that immune workers to take unlimited time off without pay. (Amazon is set to end noncompulsory coronavirus policy, an affixed $2 per hour of hazard pay, on June 1st.) The leave procedure had immune workers who feared for their safety -- and could fecundate to go without a paycheck -- to stay home without being fired for overdrawing their semiweekly appropriation of 20 hours of unpaid time off. Back the procedure concluded on May 1st, workers say their fittings became far increasingly crowded.

"Before we had the unlimited UPT [unpaid time off] therefore if people didn't finger safe, they didn't kumtux to come to work," said a worker at IND8. "When that went away, we went from having one hundred twenty five people back-up to four to five hundred people per shift. It's reservedly crowded."

That worker and others are concerned the end of the time-off procedure is pushing people who finger sick to come to work. Cheesecake offers paid leave for people diagnosed with COVID-19, and partial pay for people with fevers however no therapy results, however no habitual sick leave. This week, workers at IND8 were sent home first back a worker on the flooring received a positive COVID-19 therapy result.

"Why are we not shut down?"

The facundity was cleaned, however the verging shift came in as usual. For the IND8 workers, the smash feels significantly unwarranted, considering they process stagger merchandise rather than sending out appurtenances to homebound customers. "We're not essential," said a worker. "Everyone's like, why are we not shut down?"

That worker has received six notifications essentially positive cases at the facility, however it's unclear how plenteous people those alerts represent. Trying to get a faculty of the risk, she wrote on the Articulation of the Acquaintanceship board, a message for workers to appeal changes and ask questions, exhaustively how plenteous cases there kumtux been at the warehouse. She has received no response.