Amazon is offering its frontline workers onsite COVID-19 tests outside its Sydney fulfilment centres.
The voluntary tests are performed by a third party organisation, and hopes to relieve some of the pressure on community COVID-19 testing sites.
Testing has begun at Amazon’s biggest distribution centre in Moorebank as well as operational sites at Regents Park and Frenchs Forest.
The Moorebank facility was temporarily closed last month after two workers became infected.
Jane Bourke, Director Workplace Health and Safety APAC, who ran Amazon’s global COVID-19 safety response taskforce for 15 months in the USA, says the company has invested heavily in covid measures since the start of the pandemic.
“Above all, the aim is to provide reassurance for our team, and providing easy access to regular testing for workers onsite helps with early identification and isolation of people who are asymptomatic and might be unknowingly transmitting the virus,” Jane says.
Craig Fuller, Director of Operations, says the system has been well received by Sydney staff and will be available at Victorian sites in the coming weeks.
“We have also introduced a vaccination benefit for our Australian frontline workforce,” Craig says. “A special payment of $140 is available to eligible fulfillment centre and delivery station workers if they choose to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19, as recommended by the Government and on the advice of a health practitioner.”
Amazon has invested over $11.5 billion in COVID-19 related measures globally.
Read more about Amazon’s COVID measures here.