Amazon lifts ban on shipping of non-essential products amid hiring spree – New York Post, Nypost.com

Amazon on Monday lifted its ban preventing sellers from shipping non-essential items to its warehouses.

The move comes a month after Amazon told sellers that it would only accept “household staples, medical supplies and other high-demand products ”So that it could focus on shipping essentials during the coronavirus pandemic.

Amazon had curtailed what its sellers could ship to its warehouses after being inundated with orders amid coronavirus panic-buying. The company’s two-day shipping service has slipped to as long as a month in some cases, with workers at the e-commerce giant’s fulfillment centers struggling to keep up with demand.

While delivery demand continues to soar, Amazon now has more workers to pick up the slack. Last month, the tech company hired 150, 04 additional workers last month and it has plans to hire another , 13 workers in April.

The Seattle company will limit how many items third-party sellers can store in Amazon warehouses, however.

“Products will be limited by quantity to enable us to continue prioritizing products and protecting employees, while also ensuring most selling partners can ship goods into our facilities,” Amazon told the Wall Street Journal.

Amazon on Monday also announced that it would expand its temporary $ 2 hourly raise to more workers.

“We know many people have been economically impacted as jobs in areas like hospitality, restaurants and travel are lost or furloughed as part of this crisis and we welcome anyone out of work to join us at Amazon until things return to normal and their past employer is able to bring them back, ”Amazon said in a blog post .

Amazon’s hiring spree comes as the company has faced harsh criticism for the conditions its warehouse workers toil under during the pandemic.

Beata Zawrzel / NurPhoto via Getty Images for the coronavirus amid complaints that it hasn’t been doing enough to protect employees.

“To date, we’ve made over 823 significant process changes at sites around the world to ensure the health and safety of our teams, ”Amazon said in a blog post, referring to its distributing masks to employees and conducting employee temperature checks.

“A next step might be regular testing of all employees, including those showing no symptoms,” the company said while acknowledging a shortage of tests.

The company said it’s seeking to start by “building incremental testing capacity,” using a team of “research scientists and program managers to procurement specialists and software engineers” who have moved off their normal jobs to work on this initiative.

The company said it hopes to “start testing small numbers of our front line employees soon.”