Union’s warning over goggles for warehouse staff
BY MARK ELLIS reporters@dailyrecord.co.uk AMAZON have been accused of plotting to employ Big Brother tactics after they patented goggles that can monitor warehouse staff.
The online giants said the “augmented reality goggles” will help workers to find their way around the aisles – but the GMB union fear bosses will use them for surveillance.
General secretary Tim Roache said: “Technology can be used to increase efficiency, or like this – Big Brother bosses spying on their workers’ every step.”
The patent, filed in the US two days ago, reveals the goggles will give turn-by-turn directions, showing employees where to pick up or place objects in warehouses.
But they will also track “orientation and accelerometer data” – potentially revealing staff ’s speed and location throughout the working day.
A line in the patent describes how the goggles could prompt employees who aren’t moving to get on with their work.
Amazon have come under fire in the past over their working conditions. Roache added: “We already know Amazon treat staff like robots – now they’re essentially trying to chip them.
“This sounds like another measure to extract the final pound of flesh from exhausted, insecure workers.”
Amazon, who have warehouses in Dunfermline, Bathgate, West Lothian, and Gourock, Renfrewshire, also recently patented an ultrasonic wristband that can monitor a worker’s every move.
The company yesterday said the new goggles had “nothing to do” with surveillance and would “free up hands from carrying scanners”.
Yesterday, we reported that Amazon paid just £4.6million in UK corporation tax in 2017 – despite clocking up record sales of £8.8billion while high-street shops struggled.