Amazon said late Wednesday that it would allow employees affected by a recent role elimination to remain in their jobs, following a Business Insider report on the move.
Amazon told employees last week that it planned to end its Virtual Customer Service Reserves program on November 10. These employees can work as little as four hours a week answering customer-service calls.
When announcing the role elimination, Amazon gave Reserves employees three options: take on more hours by moving to a "flex" customer-service role — which is the same position but requires a higher minimum number of weekly hours — apply for another job within Amazon, or end their employment and accept severance.
This change upset some Reserves employees who said they were unable to take on more hours.
Amazon responded late Wednesday by sending an email to its Virtual Customer Service employees explaining the move in more detail and telling them to contact human resources if they wanted to maintain their working schedule with Amazon.
"We think we missed the mark in explaining our goal — to be super clear, our intention is to offer more opportunity and hours for people in our Reserves program," the email said, adding, "For anyone who is not able to shift to more hours, we are committed that no one loses their job."
Read the email that Amazon sent to employees:
"We wanted to follow up on the communication we had recently about adjusting hours to your Virtual Customer Service role. We think we missed the mark in explaining our goal — to be super clear, our intention is to offer more opportunity and hours for people in our Reserves program. We've heard from many of you that receiving more hours is great, and we're excited to have you take on the expanded position on the team. For anyone who is not able to shift to more hours, we are committed that no one loses their job. If you would like to continue under your current work arrangement, please contact your HR representative and we will work with you individually on your schedule going forward. VCS Associates play an important role on our team and we appreciate all you do for customers."
