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Amazon announced plans to offer full-time jobs to 70% of their 175,000 temporary workers they hired to meet demand brought on by COVID-19.
"As the long-term picture becomes more clear, we're providing the opportunity for 125,000 of those who came on with us seasonally to stay with Amazon and transition into a regular, full-time role beginning in June," the company wrote in a blog post. "Some may choose to return to their previous job and others may choose to stay at Amazon in seasonal or part-time roles."
Initially, those employees were hired as "seasonal positions" but now the company will transfer 125,000 people to full-time.
The full-time employees will make $15 an hour and have access to some training programs designed to help them grow within the company.
The full-time jobs kick in at the same time the additional $2 an hour hazard pay goes away for Amazon employees. However Amazon has spent more than $800 million in the first half of 2020 on COVID-19 safety measures. They have included personal protective equipment, enhanced cleaning of its facilities, higher hourly wages and on developing its own testing capabilities.
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