Amazon has postponed its plans to bring office workers back to their desks amid concern over rising coronavirus cases worldwide.
Corporate staff at the world’s largest retailer were due to return next month. However, the planned return has been pushed back until January next year.
In an internal memo, Beth Galetti, a senior vice-president at Amazon, announced the delay for office-based employees “in the US and other countries,” because of the pandemic. Amazon confirmed that this would include staff in the UK.
The $1.7 trillion technology group also has interests spanning groceries, internet advertising and video and music streaming. Through its Amazon Web Services division, the Seattle-based business is the world’s biggest cloud computing company. Andy Jassy succeeded Jeff Bezos, the founder, as president and chief executive this summer. Amazon has 1.34 million staff around the world — up 52 per cent on a year ago — including more than 40,000 in the UK.
“As we continue to closely watch conditions related to Covid-19, we are adjusting our guidance for corporate employees in the US and other countries where we had previously anticipated our employees would begin coming in regularly the week of September 7,” Galetti stated in an email first reported by the Seattle Times. “We are now extending this date to January 3, 2022.” The change will not apply to Amazon’s hundreds of thousands of warehouse workers, amid reports of mounting case numbers in America.
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The rapid spread of the Delta variant in the US has left policymakers racing to persuade people to get vaccinated and to companies delaying their plans to return to the office. Half the country is fully inoculated.
Wells Fargo bank and BlackRock, the investment group, have postponed their office return plans from September to October. Google has extended working from home until October and, alongside Facebook, requires staff to be vaccinated before returning. Twitter is closing reopened American offices and has halted plans to reopen more.
