Breaking News Amazon Implements Thermal Cameras to Monitor Warehouse Employees for Elevated Temperatures
Breaking News Amazon Implements Thermal Cameras to Monitor Warehouse Employees for Elevated Temperatures, A groundbreaking investigation by Reuters has uncovered Amazon.com’s utilization of thermal cameras within its warehouses to screen employees for fevers, aiming to curtail the transmission of coronavirus within its US facilities.
Reporters Jeffrey Dastin and Krystal Hu of Reuters elucidate that these cutting-edge cameras essentially gauge individuals’ heat emissions in comparison to their surroundings, offering a swift and contactless alternative to conventional forehead thermometers, which Amazon had previously adopted.
Forehead thermometers, as explained by Recode’s Rebecca Heilweil, have emerged as a ubiquitous fixture in China, serving as a widely utilized surveillance mechanism for tracking infectious diseases. Their deployment in US facilities such as Amazon fulfillment centers is a recent phenomenon precipitated by the coronavirus pandemic, with the integration of remote thermal cameras representing an even more recent development.
Despite the introduction of thermal cameras, forehead thermometers will persist as a supplementary screening measure for individuals flagged by the thermal imaging system. Several employees, as conveyed by Dastin and Hu, have expressed apprehension regarding the thermometer checks, with one employee recounting instances where a queue formed outside the warehouse, hindering adherence to social distancing protocols as workers awaited temperature assessments before receiving protective masks upon entry.
As previously reported by colleagues Jason Del Rey and Shirin Ghaffary, numerous Amazon facilities across the US have reported confirmed cases of COVID-19. These revelations prompted worker-led protests demanding that the company “offer paid leave to any warehouse employee harboring concerns about working amid the pandemic” and “implement complete facility closures for thorough sanitization upon the diagnosis of any employee with COVID-19.”
