Amazon warehouse employees who have been fully vaccinated will have their employee ID card affixed with a green sticker and be permitted to ditch their masks in operational policy changes coming into effect early this month.
Seattle 770 KTTH conservative talk show host Jason Rantz said Amazon had confirmed to his show that it will be “forcing its employees to brand themselves with stickers indicating they’ve received a COVID-19 vaccination, even if they’d prefer to keep that medical decision private. This move also forces employees to disclose if they have not received a vaccine.”
“If you do not wish to reveal your vaccination status, or simply do not want to take a vaccine, you will be forced to keep on a mask and go without a sticker.”
“It’s like a reverse Scarlet letter,” said Rantz on the show’s website, MyNorthwest.
Rantz summed up the crux concern with the policy, “Consequently, coworkers may ask them why they’re not vaccinated, prying into a personal medical decision when it’s not their business. Or, much worse, the Amazon employee may feel pressured into the vaccine, even if they do not yet need one or want one.”
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Rantz said the Amazon spokesperson he spoke with refused to answer questions about both the implementation of the policy, or why they need it. He said the use of a sticker is strange, because currently warehouse workers have to show an internal vaccine passport when they enter for work anyways.
In a May 19 article by CNBC promoting Amazon’s new measures, the outlet states Amazon will now force employees to enter their vaccination status into the “A to Z” internal employee portal, “Fully vaccinated employees will receive a green check mark on screen, which they then show as proof as they enter their site at the start of their shift.”
“By early June, Amazon said it will provide workers with a green check mark sticker that they can add to their badge, signifying they’re fully vaccinated and allowing them to enter work without a face covering or verifying their vaccination status.”
“By mid-June, Amazon said, it will ask workers to upload a picture of their vaccine card to the internal portal.”
Rantz said some states, specifically his home state of Washington, currently force employers to check vaccination status, calling it “shameful government overreach.” He notes that while not all states have this requirement, Amazon’s new sticker and vaccine passport policies are applicable nationwide.
CNBC said in March that Amazon started installing on-site vaccine centers at 250 of its warehouses across the United States and Canada.
Business Insider said Amazon employees who show proof of vaccination in the app could claim their “$40 per dose benefit.”
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) said in a May 20 segment on Fox News Primetime that his first thought about the stickers was “The same company that’s gonna require you to wear a sticker to work is opposed to having people show ID to vote.”
Fox’s host for the segment described Amazon’s policy as “not quite an armband,” and “You know, there’s another way to frame this story as well…and that is the richest man in the world’s now creating two classes of people within the walls of his company.”
