Amazon backs MORE Act, revises “time off task” policy

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• Amazon’s Dave Clark wrote a blog release Tuesday, saying that the company supports the federal legalization of marijuana and changes its drug screening policy.
• Clark also said that Amazon will amend its “time off task” policy.
• Last April, CEO Jeff Bezos noted that the company needs a “better vision for employees’ success.”

In a blog release by Amazon’s Dave Clark Tuesday, the company expressed its backing to legalize marijuana, known as the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act and to lift the screening test for some of its employees.

Backed by the federal government and reintroduced in the House last month, the MORE Act aims to decriminalize the use of marijuana at the federal level, as well as to abolish criminal offenses relating to it and fund community-based projects.

“We hope that other employers will join us, and that policymakers will act swiftly to pass this law,” the company’s consumer head wrote.

Per Clark, the company would also amend its drug testing policy for some of its personnel. For their drug screening program, cannabis drugs will no longer be part of all positions that are not overseen by the Department of Transportation.

“In the past, like many employers, we’ve disqualified people from working at Amazon if they tested positive for marijuana use,” he said. “However, given where state laws are moving across the U.S., we’ve changed course.”

The Amazon’s SVP also disclosed that they would be amending their workers’ productivity system, called as “time off task.”

Presently, the company monitors warehouse workers’ productivity by looking at the number of picked, packed, and stowed packages per hour. Should a worker take a long break from handling the packages, the internal systems will automatically log it as a “time off task” which would yield a warning against an employee, and could eventually result in job expulsion.

According to Clark, the system was built to determine issues with workers’ tools and also to “identify under-performing employees.”

The company will now track time-off tasks for a longer duration, per Clark, adding that “this change will help ensure the Time off Task policy is used in the way it was intended.”

In the past, the company’s time-off task scheme drew flak from its workers and labor advocacy groups, arguing that it makes work more exhausting and it was being utilized to track the workers’ movement. This policy, they added, has contributed to the increase of employment injuries.

Outgoing company CEO Jeff Bezos wrote a final letter to shareholders in April, saying that performance goals were necessary, but noted that Amazon would need a “better vision for employees’ success.” He also pledged to make Amazon the “Earth’s Best Employer and Earth’s Safest Place to Work.”

Source: CNBC.com