Second Fresno Amazon employee positive for coronavirus. Company says precautions taken

Another employee at Fresno’s Amazon warehouse has tested positive for COVID-19, at least the second worker who has contracted the virus in the southeast Fresno facility.

In a text message to employees late Tuesday, Amazon said the employee had not been at work since May 2. The company told The Fresno Bee the employee was tested Monday and received their results Tuesday.

“We continue to follow the CDC’s guidance and will inform any co-workers who may have been in close contact with the affected individual,” the text message reads. “If someone is found to have been in close contact, we will proactively reach out to them individually to advise them of their possible exposure to COVID-19.”

Since the start of the coronavirus outbreak, the Fresno warehouse has hired more than 1,200 new employees, the company told The Bee.

So far, Amazon has mandated 6 feet of social distancing between employees, distributed masks to all workers, regularly disinfected work stations, and checked workers’ temperatures as they clock in, a spokesperson said.

Amazon increased pay for hourly employees by $2 per hour in the U.S. and doubled the regular hourly base pay for every overtime hour worked.

Amazon spokesperson Timothy Carter said the company planned to invest approximately $4 billion from April to June on coronavirus safety precautions. Those include, “investments in personal protective equipment, enhanced cleaning of our facilities, less efficient process paths that better allow for effective social distancing, higher wages for hourly teams, and developing our own COVID-19 testing capabilities.”

Not all local employees are reassured, however.

“All of that money means nothing if I come home and my son and mother-in-law catch a virus because of me,” said Tutu Euv, a picker at the Fresno Amazon warehouse.

He said Amazon has “done a good job enforcing some rules,” but others are impossible to follow. He said receivers, who handle shipments into the warehouse, still work near each other, and employees who check on robots often have to access the floor through people’s workspaces.

He also wishes Amazon would bring back unlimited unpaid time off.

Employees were allowed to stay home and miss out on their pay in April, as of May 1 they must show documentation that proves they have been affected by the virus to stay home. Those reasons include taking care of children at home due to school closures, being high-risk, or caring for a sick person.

“To take away the unpaid time off and force us to come and then preach safety first every single day is laughable. I don’t even want to go in today since the news of a new case recently, but I have to, or I’ll get fired,” Euv said. “Not a good feeling.”

With only two days of unpaid time off allowed per quarter, another employee and mother of three decided instead to take a personal leave of absence starting May 1. She asked not to be identified.

“I didn’t want to jeopardize my job because, after this, of course, I want to go back,” she said. “But at this point, my health is more important than the job.”

Kirk Schapansky, another Fresno warehouse employee, said he is not worried.

“They have been doing temperature checks and requiring face masks and 6 feet social distancing for some time now,” Schapansky said. “Even if I was near that person, I feel the chance of contracting it is minimal.”

The warehouse closed for two weeks as the result of a fire. It reopened April 29. He said the entire facility was deep cleaned and sanitized.

This story was originally published May 6, 2020 at 2:55 PM.