Amazon blatantly disregarding coronavirus social distancing rules, says GMB

Amazon UK employees are ‘petrified’ of being infected by COVID-19 after working in packed warehouses, without hand sanitiser or personal protection equipment, according to the GMB union.

It claims to have evidence of crowds of 200-300 people in fulfilment centres across the UK, and the reuse of equipment multiple times with no hand sanitiser available.

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Workers report water dispensers being used over and over again without being disinfected, dirty canteen tables with used tissues on them, team leaders giving feedback without staying two metres away and no sanitiser of alcohol wipes to clean equipment.

Mick Rix, GMB National Officer, says: “We are so angry about this - these workers are petrified of catching and spreading COVID-19 and rightly so. Amazon is blatantly disregarding the two metre social distancing rules, there are no masks, no sanitiser and with the vast amount of people working there there’s no way of keeping them from getting ill.”

“It’s impossible for its workers to keep a safe distance from each other and hit their productivity targets. Amazon has a duty of care, not just to its own workers but to the whole of the British public. “

The US e-commerce giant did not respond to our request for comment.