As confirmed by Reuters, Amazon.com Inc will lay off workers in the United States, Canada, and Costa Rica by the end of this Wednesday. This is part of the company’s plan to cut 18,000 employees.
The corporation argued that this plan was set in motion due to the uncertain economy and the need to reduce costs.
In Costa Rica, due to the pandemic, the company created a specialized unit called “Covid Resource Center” under the human resources department, for which personnel was outsourced in Costa Rica and other countries to provide services to Amazon employees affected by the disease.
Doug Herrington, the company’s global head of retail, stated that this was being done “so we can continue to invest in the wide selection, low prices, and fast shipping that our customers love.”
Although this round of massive layoffs had been announced several weeks ago, Amazon had not confirmed which countries would be affected and only revealed it would give further details on January 18.
In addition, Herrington said that “all affected employees [would receive assistance in this transition.” For instance, in the U.S., they will provide a 60-day transition period without work with full pay and benefits, plus several additional weeks of time-based severance pay, separation pay, transitional benefits, and external job placement support.
This wave of firings represents 6% of Amazon’s global corporate employees, or 1% of its total workforce, which includes a warehouse and delivery workers.
Amazon established its operations in Costa Rica in 2008, opening a Customer Service Center with 75 employees, and by August 2022 had ten service centers with 17,000 employees in the country.
The exact number of people affected by these dismissals in Costa Rica remains unknown.
