Amazon Running Sweepstakes To Encourage Employees To Take COVID-19 Jab

(RTTNews) - Amazon.com has launched weekly Max-Your-Vax Sweepstakes to encourage their employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19. The sweepstakes began on August 6, 2021 and ends on October 21, 2021, with six draws during the sweepstakes period for 18 prizes worth nearly $2 million, including cash prizes, new vehicle or cash and vacation plus 40 hours of Paid Time Off.

Employees of the e-commerce giant who meet all of the eligibility requirements prior to the each weekly entry deadline for the applicable prize will be automatically entered in the draws. Further, all the non-winning entries for a weekly draw will carry over to enter subsequent weekly draws automatically.

The employees need to get 2 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine or Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, or 1 dose of the Johnson & Johnson Janssen COVID-19 vaccine per the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) guidance. They have to then enter their vaccination information in Amazon A to Z or Workday internal websites before the applicable weekly entry deadline to be eligible for the sweepstakes draw.

The eligible employees include US hourly non-exempt, frontline employee of Amazon.com Services LLC or its affiliates working for Operations, excluding Customer Service other than Delivery Station Liaisons, Amazon Web Services (AWS) employees and Whole Foods Market or PillPack employees.

The company has already announced 8 prizes for two draws, with two Amazonians and one Whole Foods Market team member winning $100,000 each in the first draw and four Amazonians and one Whole Foods Market team member winning a car valued at up to $40,000 each in the second draw.

The prizes for remaining four weekly draws of the Amazon Max-Your-Vax Sweepstakes include, three prizes of $100,000 in cash, five prizes of a vacation valued at $12,000.00 plus 40 hours of Paid Time Off (PTO) (total value of $13,200) and two prizes of $500,000 in cash.

Though Amazon has not mandated its front-line employees to get vaccinated, this sweepstakes serves as an encouragement to get their shots early at a time when the delta variant of coronavirus is spreading rapidly across the U.S. Amazon is also offering all non-eligible employees and new hires that provide proof of vaccination a bonus of $100.

Amazon is among the very few companies to launch sweepstakes for employees. Science and technology firm Leidos had in July launched $1 million 'Move the Needle' employee vaccine sweepstakes, with ten winners to receive their annual salary as a cash prize.

Other companies such as CVS Health and United Airlines launched sweepstakes campaign for their eligible customers aimed at closing gaps in vaccine hesitancy.

In the #OneStepCloser sweepstakes, CVS Health offered an opportunity to win one of over a thousand fun and exciting prizes through weekly drawings and grand prizes over a six-week period. United Airlines offered its loyalty program members, who have been vaccinated, a chance to win free flights for a year's worth of travel under their "Your Shot to Fly" sweepstakes campaign.