Amazon has told managers they can fire staff who refuse to come into the office at least three days a week.
New internal guidelines have been put in place for supervisors to explain how they can dismiss employees who refuse to turn up to the workplace, Business Insider reported.
This marks the latest push from big tech companies that are trying to reverse remote working policies introduced during the pandemic.
The shift has already led to bitter opposition from workers, as 30,000 Amazon staff recently signed a petition against bosses’ orders to spend three days a week in the workplace.
Although Amazon is best known in Britain for its parcel delivery network and warehouses, the company’s 1.5m-strong workforce also includes thousands of specialist software engineers in its Amazon Web Services division.
Managers are being encouraged to crack down on employees who are reluctant to stop working from home.
An internal memo said: “If the employee does not demonstrate immediate and sustained attendance after the first conversation, managers should then conduct a follow-up discussion within a reasonable time frame (depending on the employee situation, ~1-2 weeks).
“This conversation will 1) reinforce that return to office 3 days a week is a requirement of their job, and 2) explain that continued non-compliance without a legitimate reason may lead to disciplinary action, up to and including termination of your employment.”
Chief executive Andy Jassy said in February: “Teams tend to be better connected to one another when they see each other in person more frequently.”
He followed this up in August by telling staff: “It’s past the time to disagree and commit. And if you can’t disagree and commit, I also understand that, but it’s probably not going to work out for you at Amazon because we are going back to the office at least three days a week, and it’s not right for all of our teammates to be in three days a week and for people to refuse to do so.”
Amazon announced its three-day-week policy in February and implemented it from 1 May, although staff protests have rumbled on.
It also announced plans to cut 18,000 jobs as part of a global cost-cutting drive, following lower-than-expected financial results that wiped $200bn from the company’s market value.
During the pandemic, many big tech workers took advantage of fully remote working.
Other tech companies such as Apple, Meta and Google have all implemented return-to-office programmes, while Twitter owner Elon Musk called remote working “morally wrong” as he terminated the policy for that company’s staff earlier this year
An Amazon spokesman said: “As is the case with any of our policies, we expect our team to follow them and will take appropriate action if someone chooses not to do that.”
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