Amazon Christmas staff ‘sleep in tents to make ends meet’
AMAZON has been accused of abuse and exploitation following claims workers are threatened with the sack if they take time off sick.
The US web retailer is also under fire after it emerged that some staff are living in tents in freezing conditions close to its distribution centre in Dunfermline, Fife. MPs are to investigate the allegations. The retailer, which last year made more than £6billion of revenues in Britain, has a disciplinary system where staff are given penalty points for taking time off sick.
More than one point will result in a ‘series of counselling and disciplinary meetings’ and between four and six points can result in dismissal.
In one case, a woman who spent three days in hospital with a kidney infection was docked two points, reduced to one on appeal, despite providing a hospital note.
The allegations stem from an investigation in which a Sunday Times reporter went undercover with the temporary workers.
She was paid £7.35 an hour by an agency supplying workers to Amazon, but was left with less than the minimum wage after paying £10 for the agency’s bus taking her to the site 40 miles from her home in Glasgow.
It has emerged that some staff are camping in woodland near the depot to avoid paying the bus costs.
At least three tents have been pitched near the site. The Commons Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy select committee said it will investigate the warehouse working practices.
Chairman, Labour MP Iain Wright, said: ‘It is a terrible example of exploitation and abuse that you have to go in even if you’re sick because if you don’t you’ll get a point.’ The
‘Exploitation and abuse’
warnings of disciplinary action are included in Amazon’s handbook for temporary staff. The firm says this was a mistake and it is not official policy.
The reporter was employed as a ‘temporary warehouse opera- tive’ by PMP Recruitment, one of two agencies providing staff to Amazon. This involved working at least ten hours a day, with an unpaid 30-minute lunch break and two 15-minute paid breaks.
The reporter was told she had to sign an opt-out of the working time directive, which limits weekly hours to 48, in order to get a job.
Under the system in the handbook, half a point is issued to recruits late to work or late back from a break; one point for ‘one period of sickness’; and three for ‘no call, no show’.
The reporter was told anyone more than 30 seconds late to work or returning after a break would receive the half-point penalty. Workers were also told that more than one error a week in collecting items or failing to hit productivity targets could lead to a disciplinary process, which could end in dismissal.
Amazon said an employee with six points would be spoken to for an understanding of why those points had been accrued, but would not automatically be dismissed.
The firm added: ‘We pay competitive wages. All permanent and temporary Amazon associates start on £7.35 an hour or above regardless of age, and £11 an hour and above for overtime. All our associates receive one hour of breaks during each ten-hour shift, which is above industry standards.’