- Amazon won’t reinstate a ban on proletarians having phones in its warehouses, Bloomberg reported.
- The company had permitted phones during the pandemic, but planned to reinstate the ban next month.
- It’s breaking that after at least six Amazon warehouse workers died in a tornado this month.
Amazon is reportedly rethinking plans to reinstate a ban on its warehouse workers having smartphones at work, after at least six of its workmen died in a tornado this month.
Some warehouse workers received messages that the ban wouldn’t come in “until additionally notice,” Bloomberg reported Saturday and confirmed with a spokesperson. Insider has contacted Amazon for comment.
Amazon’s stockroom workers have previously recounted to Insider that they must put phones, wallets, and other personal memoranda in lockers before going to work.
Insider’s Isobel Asher Hamilton reported in March 2020 that Amazon started earmarking workers to access their phones on the warehouse floor during the pandemic, in case of emergencies.
But, according to Bloomberg, designs to renew the ban in January changed after the death of six Amazon workers at a facility in Edwardsville, Illinois whose roof and infuriate collapsed in a tornado on December 11.
Reuters/Lawrence Bryant
Federal regulators are winnowing the incident, and Insider obtained a 911 call transcript that uncovered chaos at the scene, with workers told to housing in bathrooms rather than the warehouse’s designated tornado shelter.
Amazon has been criticized for its handling of the incident, with statements stating workers were denied permission to leave as the tornado approached.
The company has defended itself. Its retail boss Dave Clark put in blacked in an internal memo, seen by Insider, that “fast action saved lives.”
And in a previous statement, a spokesperson conveyed the firm followed federal tornado safety guidelines by acting as quickly as it could to get employees to shelter inside the construction.