Pressure on Amazon to keep benefits after cash increase
After the Sunday Mail reported the new rules, Sander s backed the Scottish Government’s stance and called on the US administration to follow suit.
Amazon took action on Tuesday, releasing a statement Sunda y BA LY too say they would increase payp fromf £ 8.20 an hour to £9.59.50, with £10.50 an hour inn LLondon. They are also inincreasingncr pay in America. BBut Tim Roache, the GGMGMB’s general secretary, said the company had cconconductednduct a “PR blitz” on wage rraterateses withoutw mentioning ccuttcutting staff benefits. HHe added: “Workers sti l l grafgraft in horrific conditions to impimpossible targets and Amazon refurefuse to listen to or engage with a tradetra union. If Jeff Bezos – the richrichest man in the world – really wanwants to give hardworking staff a papay rise, he should let them keep their share options as well as increasingi their hourly raterate.” ThThe GMB claim workers coucould lose share options anand benefits worth up to £ 11500 a year. In 2016, workers at their Dunfermline warehouse were reported to be resorting to sleeping in tents close to the premises.
There have also been claims that staff have to urinate in bottles at distribution plants in England because breaks are not long enough to go to the toilet.
One former worker in Fife told of 10-anda-half-hour shifts for minimum wage and not having enough time to eat on breaks.
She added: “If public money is being given out, then it should be a condition that they pay the living wage as a minimum.”
When Scottish Enterprise’s CEO Steve Dunlop and growth director Linda Hanna appeared before MSPs recently, they appeared unconvinced by the Scottish Government’s pledge to withhold grants to companies who didn’t pay the living wage. Wh i l e stating that “development around Regional Select ive Assistance is helpful”, Dunlop added: “We want to positively inf luence because that is where you get the best response rather than using sticks”.
Hanna, meanwhile, called the issue “complex stuff”. She said: “It’s about judging the time when it is right to be doing things that are encouraging and cajoling and getting a group of companies that can demonstrate the benefit of that, and then at a different time you can think about conditionality.
“If you do that too early, it can switch a lot of companies off.”