Amazon fined for concealing COVID-19 case numbers from its workers in California
Amazon has agreed to pay $500,000 to better enforce state consumer protection laws after California’s attorney general said the company has concealed COVID-19 case numbers from its workers. It’s the first such action under the state’s new “right to know” law meant to improve workplace safety.
Amazon has faced ongoing pressure from the attorney general’s office in recent years. Bonta’s office said the action comes in response to a complaint accusing the company of failures to notify warehouse workers and local health agencies of COVID-19 case numbers throughout the pandemic. It is part of a stipulated judgment, a written agreement subject to court approval.
The $500,000 payment announced Monday is minuscule for a corporate behemoth such as Amazon. But the amount is large compared with fines for coronavirus safety violations issued in the pandemic so far by the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health. For example, the agency, as the virus was spreading, for violations at a delivery center in Hawthorne and a fulfillment center in Eastvale after employees called for an investigation into their working conditions.
Companies’ legal requirements to notify their workers about coronavirus cases in the early stretch of the pandemic were not clear. Companies were not mandated to disclose infections to workers unless they were identified as close contacts and subject to quarantine, county health authorities said.
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