With a contentious union vote behind him and his role as chief executive officer about to end, Jeff Bezos, the richest man alive, said it's time to put more premium on the welfare of Amazon's workers, Agence France-Presse reported Friday.
In his final letter to shareholders, Bezos laid out a new vision for the future of the company, including the improvement of work conditions and workers' safety as well as focusing on climate change issues.
Bezos also discussed Amazon's growth and success of generating $1.6 trillion in share-owner wealth since it was first established as a bookstore in 1997.
"Despite what we have accomplished, it is clear to me that we need a better vision for our employees' success," AFP quoted Bezos as saying in the letter.
Bezos acknowledged Thursday that his new annual letter to stakeholders would be his last as CEO.
He is stepping down as Amazon CEO later this year and take the executive chairman position.
Replacing Bezos as CEO is long-time right hand Andy Jassy, of Amazon's Cloud Services Unit.
"I want to especially thank Andy Jassy for agreeing to take on the CEO role ... Andy is brilliant and has the highest of standards," Brian Sozzi of Yahoo Finance quoted Bezos as saying.
Referring to the company's workforce, Bezos said he wants to introduce two key elements to Amazon's customer-centric philosophy: "We're going to be Earth's Best Employer and Earth's Safest Place to Work," he said.
A controversial unionization campaign at an Amazon warehouse in Alabama failed last week as a vote count showed majority of employees rejecting the move.
Bezos asserted that he took no comfort in the unionization failure.
Meanwhile, Wall Street analysts are bullish on Amazon in recent weeks.
They believe Amazon is too much of a leader with a very solid valuation for the company to be downgraded simply because Bezos is handing the torch to Jassy.
