Xmas shopping fear as £3k Amazon offer lures high street staff
RETAILERS warn they could be starved of staff this Christmas because Amazon is offering signing-on bonuses of up to £3,000.
The shortage of workers in shops, hospitality businesses and warehouses has led to a race to fill hundreds of thousands of roles ahead of the vital festive period.
Industry leaders say Amazon’s ‘golden hello’ could leave smaller rivals struggling to keep deliveries flowing and shelves stocked as they can not afford better wages. High streets are already being battered by higher costs for energy, staff and shipped imports as they struggle to recover from the pandemic.
Staff shortages in warehouses could lead to longer delivery times and mean last-minute shoppers are left without presents. To meet the peak in demand at Christmas, Amazon is trying to recruit 20,000 temporary staff.
An advert on the Amazon jobs website seen by the Daily Mail yesterday showed workers starting in Exeter by October 30 will get a £3,000 bonus.
The warehouse staff will also receive wages of £10 an hour, or £18,200 a year – close to £2,000 more than the national minimum wage. They can also supplement this with overtime rates of between £15 and £20 an hour. Other Amazon sites are offering between £1,000 and £2,000 bonuses for starters. There are fears that many shops, pubs and restaurants will be unable to compete with the pay being offered by big operators.
Many larger firms have already followed Amazon’s suit. Asos has been forced to raise hourly wages for warehouse staff from £9.65 to between £12 and £13, while jewellery chain Pandora today announced a £1,000 pay rise for its 1,200 UK staff.
Andrew Goodacre, chief executive of the British Independent Retailers Association, said yesterday: ‘We don’t have the capacity to raise wages by those levels. We can’t compete.’
He added: ‘Our members are telling us that they are getting stock through, the challenge will be replenishment.
‘It does seem strange buying for Christmas before Halloween has arrived but that is how it is going to have to be.’
Ian Wright, who heads the Food and Drink Federation, said: ‘There isn’t a vast reservoir of British workers just waiting to be fought over. It’s incredibly difficult to get Christmas staff labour in many areas. It will mean higher prices and
‘Higher prices and fewer choices’
fewer choices on shelves.’
Amazon’s hiring has even hit care homes. Operators claim that staff are quitting for the retailer’s higher pay and fear there could be 170,000 vacancies in the sector by the end of the year.
Yodel warned it had seen a big spike in orders in the past fortnight, following warnings from online sellers that parents were already ‘panic buying’ toys.
Mike Hancox of the courier business said: ‘It has been a big last two weeks in categories like toys.’
Government ministers have admitted there will be Christmas shortages, while port bosses have warned of further chaos with containers stacked up on quays.