Bulletins

Masks are now optional for Amazon warehouse workers

Amazon lifted its mask mandate for all of its warehouse workers in the United States, except where state and local guidelines forbid it.

An Amazon worker.

Amazon has sent a notice to employees saying that masking is now optional.

Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Amazon warehouse workers across the United States can choose not to wear a mask starting tomorrow, after the company announced it would be lifting the mandate on Sunday, CNBC first reported.

A notice to employees said that the company was lifting its requirement but strongly encouraged unvaccinated workers to wear a mask. Masks will still be mandated where state and local guidelines require it. The requirement was last lifted in September 2021 and then reimposed in December 2021 after the rise of the omicron variant.

The Amazon changes come after the Centers for Disease Control eased its mask recommendations for most of the country late last week, recommending that most places no longer require mask-wearing.

Since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, Amazon has faced accusations, primarily from California and New York lawmakers, that it concealed covid transmission data from warehouse workers. The company agreed to pay $500,000 in a settlement with California regulators in Nov. 2021 over the allegations.

Anna Kramer

Anna Kramer is a reporter at Protocol (Twitter: @ anna_c_kramer, email: akramer@protocol.com), where she writes about labor and workplace issues. Prior to joining the team, she covered tech and small business for the San Francisco Chronicle and privacy for Bloomberg Law. She is a recent graduate of Brown University, where she studied International Relations and Arabic and wrote her senior thesis about surveillance tools and technological development in the Middle East.

amazonmask mandatemaskscovid-19warehouse
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