Amazon reportedly says California's expanded coronavirus sick leave policy doesn't cover its warehouse workers

• Amazon says its warehouse workers in California are exempt from the state's expanded coronavirus sick leave policy, according to The Guardian.
• The California executive order gives food-sector workers two weeks of paid sick leave if they may have been exposed to the coronavirus, including "workers at warehouses where food is stored."
• The company's response to the coronavirus has caused distress among employees: Warehouse workers told The Guardian that they're stressed about getting sick and infecting loved ones, and an Amazon vice president recently resigned in anger.
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In April, California Gov. Gavin Newsom expanded the state's sick leave policy for food workers, ordering that employees can receive two weeks of paid sick leave if they may have been exposed to the coronavirus and need to self-isolate.

The executive order's text includes "workers at warehouses where food is stored." And several of Amazon's warehouses in California, including those in Riverside and San Bernardino, have warehouse workers handle food.

But Amazon says the order doesn't apply to the company's warehouse workers anyway, according to The Guardian, and that employees need to keep working.

Amazon workers in the Inland Empire area, east of Los Angeles in Southern California, told The Guardian that they have to choose between potential coronavirus exposure and lost wages.

Coronavirus cases have been confirmed at six Amazon warehouses in Southern California. Workers told The Guardian that some were quitting their jobs for fear of infection.

"I'm afraid to come to work, but I don't have a choice," Eddie, a 48-year-old worker in San Bernardino, told The Guardian. "I shouldn't be there. We're risking our safety for the company … The more I think about it, the more stressed I get."

Amazon's response to the coronavirus has roiled the company

Amazon workers around the country have criticized their employer's coronavirus policies, citing dangerous work conditions. Some critical workers have been fired.

Other employees — most prominently former vice president and engineer Tim Bray — have quit. Staying at Amazon "would have meant, in effect, signing off on actions I despised," Bray wrote in an April 29 blog post.

"I quit in dismay at Amazon firing whistleblowers who were making noise about warehouse employees frightened of COVID-19," he added, calling the company "chickens---" for firing critical workers.

One of his former colleagues disputed his characterization of the company. "Nothing could be farther from the truth," Brad Porter, an engineer and vice president, wrote on LinkedIn on Tuesday.

"I believe a strong case can be made that Amazon has responded more nimbly to this crisis than any other company in the world," Porter said.

Representatives for Amazon did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

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