Amazon’s corporate employees in the US will not be returning to the office until 2022 as Covid rates surge in the country.
Office staff were originally due back on 7 September, but the online retailer has announced a new date of 3 January 2022.
Daily cases have exceeded the 100,000 mark in recent days in the US up from under 10,000 in June. At the same time the vaccination rate has slowed in several areas. Florida and Texas are two states where some of the highest levels of new infections are being recorded.
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“As we continue to closely watch local conditions related to Covid-19, we are adjusting our guidance for corporate employees,” said Amazon.
The warehouse and delivery workers who make up the majority of Amazon workers will continue to work as normal; the extension in homeworking only applies to corporate and tech employees. Some Amazon workers based abroad will also face a delay in returning to the office but the company has not stated exactly where.
Amazon had previously announced that its corporate employees would be allowed to work from home two days a week under a hybrid model.
Two major US financial institutions, Wells Fargo and Blackrock, have also said they will suspend their office returns.
Wells Fargo the US’s largest bank in terms of employee numbers said it was delaying its return to the office from 7 September, to 4 October. It will also give its 260,000 employees an extra eight hours of paid time off to encourage them to get vaccinated.
Investment giant Blackrock has put back its office return date to 1 October.
Google, Facebook and Twitter have also delayed their office returns, with Google and Facebook also requiring employees to be vaccinated.
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Investment giant Vanguard on Wednesday said it would pay staff who got vaccinated $1,000 (£792).
