Amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic that continues to spread, companies in India are taking various measures to secure the supply chains and protect their employees.
E-commerce major Amazon said it continues to work closely with authorities in India and worldwide to ensure that they are taking the right precautions and have implemented a series of preventative health measures for employees.
All Amazon employees diagnosed with COVID-19 are placed under quarantine will receive up to two weeks of paid leave. This is in addition to unlimited unpaid time off for all hourly employees through the end of March.
"At the same time, we increased our cleaning of all facilities globally, including regular sanitisation of all door handles, stairway handrails, elevator buttons, lockers, and touch screens,” the company added.
For safeguarding fulfilment network and delivery teams, Amazon has taken a series of steps including:
— Pausing visitor entry into fulfilment centres and increasing the frequency and intensity of cleaning at all operations sites across India.
— All associates are required to stay home and seek medical attention if they are feeling unwell.
— Continuing to raise awareness and educating employees and associates to adhere to preventive hygiene practices.
— Communicating that everyone must wash their hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, especially after going to the bathroom; before eating; and after blowing their nose, coughing, or sneezing.
Flipkart, on its part, has said that it has initiated Business Continuity Planning for its supply chain organisation and is ensuring that staff follows precautions and preventive measures.
It has also conducted several awareness programs across their fulfilment centres, hubs and these have been undertaken in multiple regional languages in order to educate the staff and sensitise them to the situation without creating panic.
“We are taking all preventive measures as advised by WHO guidelines. All our warehouse and delivery partners are adhering to the WHO’s hand hygiene advisory during deliveries, using sanitiser to clean their hands. We are also constantly monitoring the health of our employees and delivery associates,” said Flipkart.
Across the supply chain and logistics network, the company said it has organised more than 3,000 awareness sessions covering over 100,000 employees across all facilities on how employees and partners can minimise their exposure by following simple precautionary measures.
Some of these measures include:
— Temperature screening using infra-red thermometers has been made mandatory for all employees, vendors and visitors. Persons with suspected flu symptoms are advised to return home.
— All facilities are thoroughly cleaned with disinfectant to ensure a safe work environment. Deep fumigation is carried out as and when required.
— Ensuring availability of antibacterial soap and hand sanitisers at the entry point of each facility.
— Advisories to all employees and staff regarding washing of hands and hygiene measures before entering the warehouses, fulfilment centres and other premises.
— Frequent sanitisation of surfaces at entry point is being done, including that of biometric machines which are sanitised every two minutes. This precautionary measure is extended to trolley handles, lift switches, equipment and doorknobs.
— Educational posters in regional languages to remind staff constantly of safety measures.
Besides these, the company is also keeping a thorough and regular track of the affected areas through the centralised security team to avoid exposure of employees in those regions.
In order to reduce exposure to infection for delivery executives, Flipkart has requested customers to pay through digital payment gateways for all cash-on-delivery (COD) shipments. “Customers also have the option of requesting the delivery partner to leave their packages at the security booth of their residential complexes in line with their complex’s guidelines (in case of online payments). We are working on making additional delivery options such as contactless delivery available to customers in select locations,” the company added.
Online grocery store Bigbasket, which has seen a surge in orders after lockdowns were imposed across cities, is also taking a series of precautionary steps. These include:
— All warehouses and hubs are being sanitised frequently with appropriate disinfectants to ensure all stored products are safe.
— All warehouse employees are being checked for symptoms of being unwell, and are being thermally scanned, before entering the warehouses. All warehouse employees handling fruits and vegetables use disposable face masks and gloves.
— Contactless procedures are being adopted at the time of delivery for non prepaid orders and further, contactless delivery option will be rolled out soon for all pre-paid orders as well.
Online fashion store nykaa.com has also implemented enhanced safety measures which include:
— Disinfecting all high traffic areas including makeup counters, cash tills, shelves, tables, displays with a hospital grade disinfecting cleaner.
— Keeping hand sanitises available in all stores.
— Regular deep cleaning of stores and backrooms.
— Training beauty and support staff with the norms as defined by the authorities.
As a precautionary measure, the company has also suspended all makeup services, makeovers (paid or free), makeup and skin applications until further notice.