By Sebastian Herrera

Amazon.com Inc. has filled 80,000 jobs in the span of a few weeks, part of a hiring spree to add 100,000 workers to meet soaring demand in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

The tech giant also announced a raft of worker protections, including plans to check employee temperatures at its facilities in the U.S. and Europe and at Whole Foods Market locations by early next week. The company is checking the temperature of 100,000 employees a day and plans to provide masks to all facilities by next week, according to Dave Clark, Amazon's senior vice president of world-wide operations.

The announcement comes after Amazon warehouse workers and other hourly employees have called on Amazon to do more to protect them. Employees in at least 15 warehouses in the U.S. have tested positive for Covid-19 or entered quarantine due to symptoms, the company said this week. That list has grown almost daily in recent weeks. Amazon employs more than 500,000 people in the U.S., making it the second largest private employer.

About 15 employees at a warehouse in Staten Island, N.Y., walked out of work on Monday, according to Amazon. The walkout was followed by similar actions at facilities in Chicago and the Detroit area, as well as a "sick out" on Tuesday by workers at Whole Foods, which is owned by Amazon.

Write to Sebastian Herrera at Sebastian.Herrera@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 02, 2020 11:22 ET (15:22 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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