After six employees died at an Amazon warehouse in Illinois that was hit by a strong twister on December 10, the corporate is strolling again its plans to reinstate a office ban on cell telephones.

According to Bloomberg, sure Amazon staff obtained a discover from the corporate on Friday afternoon informing them that non-public cell telephones will nonetheless be admitted on the warehouse ground “until further notice,” a coverage that runs opposite to the corporate’s earlier dedication to restart the ban starting in January 2022.

Amazon didn’t explicitly say that the abrupt reversal had been influenced by the lethal twister that killed six employees after it ripped by means of the corporate’s Edwardsville, Illinois, warehouse earlier this month, partially flattening elements of the constructing as employees sheltered within the toilet and prompting an OSHA investigation. But employees’ security considerations do appear to have performed a component in influencing the choice. The announcement additionally comes amid a regarding spike in Covid-19 instances, lethal warehouse shootings, and a basic uptick in weather-related disasters—all occasions during which employees may moderately require their telephones for up-to-the-minute alerts and key security steerage.

On Monday, a gaggle of lawmakers led by Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representatives Cori Bush and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez sent a letter to Amazon searching for solutions concerning the circumstances surrounding the deaths of its warehouse staff. The letter says that the tragedy matches into “a larger pattern: Amazon puts worker safety at risk in everyday situations and emergencies alike.”

Amazon has by no means had a stellar popularity for security—or for caring in regards to the well-being of its employees, for that matter—however a very egregious lack of communication through the twister earlier this month might need additionally performed a job in getting the corporate to stroll again its cellphone ban. Recently publicized textual content messages between considered one of Amazon’s supply drivers and a dispatcher present that the driving force was repeatedly instructed to remain the course and end their deliveries, regardless of the twister sirens wailing within the distance.

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“If you decide to return with your packages, it will be viewed as you refusing your route, which will ultimately end with you not having a job come tomorrow morning,” the dispatcher stated through the change, to which the driving force responded, “I’m literally stuck in this damn van without a safe place to go with a tornado on the ground.”