Amazon announces ‘special recognition bonus’ of up to Rs 6,300 for employees in India amid COVID-19 pandemic

E-commerce giant Amazon on Monday announced a "special recognition bonus" of up to Rs 6,300 to its employees in India, in line with similar payouts being made to staff in other countries. The announcement comes during the COVID-19 pandemic and provides a major relief to the salaried Amazon employees. The announcement comes amid a global campaign #MakeAmazonPay, which alleges that the Amazon made big profits, but at a huge cost to workers and the planet. 

In a blogpost today, Amazon Worldwide Operations Senior Vice President Dave Clark wrote, "I’ve been at Amazon for 22 holiday seasons and this one is definitely unique, to say the least. I’m grateful to our teams who continue to play a vital role serving their communities. As we head out of the festive season in India, we want to share our appreciation through another special recognition bonus, totalling more than $500 million globally for our front-line employees." 

With this announcement, Amazon's total spending on special bonuses and incentives for their teams globally has gone to over $2.5 billion in 2020, including a $500 million thank you bonus earlier this year. 

"India Operations employees who were employed by the company from October 16 – November 13 will qualify for a bonus of Rs 6300 for full-time employees and Rs 3,150 for part-time employees. Combined with other holiday pay incentives, in this quarter alone we are investing over $750 million in additional pay for our front-line hourly workforce, on top of our industry-leading pay," Clark added in the blog post. 

"Our teams are doing amazing work serving customers' essential needs, while also helping to bring some much-needed holiday cheer for socially-distanced families around the world. I've never been more grateful for - or proud of - our teams," he said.