An Amazon driver was told she would be fired if she stopped delivering packages during tornado warnings: report

An Amazon driver in Illinois was told by her supervisor on December 10 that she would lose her job if she stopped delivering packages, despite warnings of tornadoes in the area, according to a Bloomberg report.

The delivery driver told Bloomberg that her base was located in Edwardsville, Illinois — the same location where six Amazon employees died after a tornado struck a warehouse last week.

About 80 minutes before the tornado struck the warehouse, the driver sent a message — screenshots of which were viewed by Bloomberg — to the supervisor saying, "radios been going off."

The supervisor told her to "just keep driving," adding that "we can't just call people back for a warning unless Amazon tells us to," according to the text messages cited by Bloomberg. A person with knowledge of the situation confirmed to Bloomberg the authenticity of the messages between the driver and the supervisor.

When the driver sent another message to her supervisor, about 30 minutes later, saying she could hear tornado alarms, the supervisor replied to say the driver should continue with her deliveries, according to the texts reported by Bloomberg.

The supervisor then sent another message, telling the driver to "shelter in place for now, I just got word from Amazon," according to the texts seen by Bloomberg, before adding, "give it about 15-20 minutes and then continue as normal." 

The driver then told her supervisor in a subsequent message that she was going to return to base in Edwardsville for her own personal safety, adding that there was no place to shelter near her and the storm would be on top of her in 30 minutes, Bloomberg reported.

"If you decided to come back, that choice is yours. But I can tell you it won't be viewed as for your own safety. The safest practice is to stay exactly where you are. 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 supervisor then wrote in the text to the driver,