Amazon will double pay for Canadian warehouse employees working overtime, the company says, after a surge in pandemic-related online demand.

The extra overtime pay will continue until the beginning of May, and is in addition to a $2-an-hour wage bump currently in place.

In an email sent Saturday to employees around the world, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said business was “not as usual.

“This is a time of great stress and uncertainty. It’s also a moment in time when the work we’re doing is its most critical,” the email said.

Last week, the Star reported on Amazon warehouse workers’ concerns over the spread of COVID-19 — including lack of access to paid sick leave, lack of access to masks, and fears that the new hiring to cope with demand made following social-distancing guidelines difficult. Photos shared with the Star showed packed lunchrooms and crowded work spaces.

One Amazon worker at a GTA warehouse, who spoke to the Star on condition of anonymity, said the company has since made “pretty substantial” changes to social-distancing measures.

The new measures include staggering start times and lunch breaks at fulfilment centres, as well as deactivating every other workstation so that the distance between employees processing items is greater.

“Now they’re letting people wear masks,” the worker added. “There’s more and more people wearing masks. So they’re allowing it.”

Gagandeep Kaur, a postal worker and organizer with the Brampton-based Warehouse Workers’ Centre called the pay increases a “step in the right direction” for employees, but said she’d like to see the measures made permanent.

“If they are an important part of society and people are depending on them, their wages should reflect that,” she said.

“Two dollars is not a true reflection of that. They deserve much more.”

Starting wages at Canadian fulfilment centres are around $17 an hour, not including the temporary $2 wage boost until the end of April.

In his email to employees on the weekend, Bezos said he was “not alone in being grateful for the work you are doing.”

He added that Amazon had “placed purchase orders for millions of face masks we want to give to our employees and contractors who cannot work from home.”

“Masks remain in short supply globally and are at this point being directed by governments to the highest-need facilities like hospitals and clinics,” the email said.

“When our turn for masks comes, our first priority will be getting them in the hands of our employees and partners working to get essential products to people.”

Amazon is also hiring 100,000 more employees across the U.S. to cope with surging online demand. It is currently advertising warehouse-job openings across Canada.

“Help is on the way,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says in announcing the emergency response benefit that will provide $2,000 a month for four months for people who have lost their income because of COVID-19. The Canada Emergency Response Benefit combines two benefits announced last week to streamline application process.

“(These workers) are providing necessary items to the most vulnerable in society. Their role is very important at the moment,” said Kaur.

But the additional hiring still poses issues, she added — especially since seasonal hires do not receive paid sick days.

“They are adding more of the temporary workforce that will be there with the same precarious conditions,” she said.

In a statement posted online, Amazon said it has also “adjusted our logistics, transportation, supply chain, purchasing, and third-party seller processes to prioritize stocking and delivering items that are a higher priority for our customers.” However, the GTA employee said they’d so far seen little change in the kinds of orders being processed.

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“The things that have jumped out of me the last couple of days are children’s books, puzzles, games, video games, the cosmetics (orders) I find are still pretty standard,” the employee said.

Despite more robust social-distancing measures, there are still some parts of the job that required close interaction with others, the worker added.

“We should be prioritized for testing. Everybody is absolutely on board for something like that.”

“Overall I would say people are uneasy,” the employee said. “And I think a lot of people feel stuck.”

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