Representational Image. Source: Twitter
London: In a first ever UK strike, the Amazon workers are staging a protest over pay and toxic work environment in the warehouses.
The workers have gone on saying the ‘robots in the Coventry warehouse are treated better’ than them. They have also called out the recently offered 50p per hour raise as ‘derisory’.
As per a report by the BBC, the workers complaining about the work conditions saying they are continuously watched and reprimanded for taking “idle time” that only lasts a few minutes.
The retail giant has a system that ‘recognises exceptional performance’ which not only keeps a close watch on an employee but also ‘encourages coaching to help employees better their performance’.
However, two GMB-affiliated Amazon employees claimed that the robots in the warehouse were “treated better than humans.”
Even a trip to the restroom might result in queries from supervisors, according to Darren Westwood and GarfieldHilton.
The issue with stopping work is that people are curious as to why, according to Hilton. So they can check the system if the time is longer than a few minutes.
The search for a restroom and the trip back might sometimes take more than 15 minutes, according to Mr. Hilton, who has diabetes. He claimed that it is not always easy to find restrooms within the building that are close by.
They said that management keep tabs on employees’ performance and collect time that is not used for item scanning.Workers at the Coventry warehouse inspect merchandise before it is distributed to customers by Amazon fulfilment centres.
“Performance is only counted when an employee is at their station and logged in to execute their job,” an Amazon spokeswoman stated.
The performance management tool is halted if an employee logs out, which they can do at any moment.
However, Westwood and Hilton claimed that the working environment is having an impact on their coworkers, some of whom are putting in 60-hour work weeks to keep up with living expenses.
On the brief bus ride to Amazon’s facility, Mr. Hilton claimed that he had observed employees dozing off. There are really a tonne of them in ghost mode throughout the place.
He stated that Amazon aims to “maximise every minute in the building.”
Amazon increased employee pay by 50p per hour in August.
According to an Amazon spokesman, the company is happy to offer competitive pay that starts at a minimum of between ?10.50 and ?11.45 per hour, depending on location. We value the fantastic job our workers accomplish throughout the year.
He claimed that since 2018, the minimum hourly rate paid to Amazon employees has increased by 29%.
However, union members demand a wage of ?15 per hour. The 50p offer, according to Westwood, was “a smack in the mouth.”
He stated, “These folks had worked two years through the pandemic, they had seen Amazon’s shares soar, and who had seen the revenues just become incomprehensible.
As a result of Covid restrictions forcing customers to shop online, Amazon sales and profits increased. Profits nearly quadrupled to $21.3 billion (?17.2 billion) in 2020 and then increased once more to $33.3 billion in 2019.
Since the reopening of economies, growth has been uneven, and despite hiring thousands of new employees since 2019, Amazon is now letting go of 18,000 employees.
“People could think we’re being greedy if we demand ?15 per hour. But we not asking for Jeff Bezos rockets or boats, we just want to be able to live. I just want to be able to pay my bills at the end of the week. That’s allwe’re asking for,” said Westwood.
Of the 1,500 workers at Amazon’s Coventry site, around 300 are expected to strike on Wednesday.
Amazon said: “A tiny proportion of our workforce is involved. In fact, according to the verified figures, only a fraction of 1% of our UK employees voted in the ballot – and that includes those who voted against industrial action.”
However, Mr. Westwood deemed the figures to be “excellent.” Although Amazon does not recognise unions, the GMB reports that there are members in various numbers dispersed across the UK.
In the US, Amazon has fought against unionisation.
In a vote that resulted in the Amazon Labor Union’s certification, more than half of the 8,000 workers at a Staten Island, New York, warehouse cast their ballots in favour of union membership. The business has promised to challenge the certification, nevertheless.
The number of union members in Coventry, according to Westwood, is not insignificant. “In July, there were 30 persons. It’s over 300 now,” he said.
He said that there is a huge range of different nationalities who work at Coventry. “They don’t understand this is the UK – we can organise a union, we can protest, we can withdraw our labour.”
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