Amazon are in the news currently for their steps to change following great critic of their practices, particularly their warehouse conditions and salary structure. Have they done enough though and should they have stepped up earlier?
Amazon has been surrounded by more and more rumours about the conditions of their warehouses for most of 2018.
With reports coming out about employees having to skip bathroom breaks, having to pee in bottles to avoid being accused of idling, constant pat downs to check if they have stolen products and employees being known to have a fit at work and rushed to hospital, only to be reprimanded the next day for failing to turn up. With all this happening how can it have taken Amazon this long to try to stand up to these allegations?
These allegations have been denied by Amazon in the past, with them releasing public statements such as; “Amazon provides a safe and positive workplace for thousands of people across the UK with competitive pay and benefits from day one. We have not been provided with confirmation that the people who completed the survey worked at Amazon and we don’t recognize these allegations as an accurate portrayal of activities in our buildings.” But if this is all true why haven’t we heard large amounts of employees standing up for them, and why have Amazon made changes?
Perhaps the fault is not just with Amazon but the public? Many of us heard about these conditions, which are frankly shocking and blatant exploitation of workers, but continue to buy Amazon Warehouse products. How can we expect large companies to be held to standards we expect when we don’t follow through on our morals? We can’t, maybe that’s not the way it should be, but it’s the truth.
Recently though Amazon have begun to make the changes their employees deserve, with better pay (increases of between £0.20 and £1.00) per hour and promises warehouse conditions to have improved, is this enough though and is it going to repair their reputation as a cutting-edge brand when numerous other companies are pushing boundaries with their employee care. Companies like Facebook and Google are consistently rated as top UK employers with fantastic offices and a caring programme of employment, why aren’t Amazon? We all know they are pushing the boat out with drones and delivery becoming faster and faster, the development of how they treat, and retain their employees should be a basic step in their progress.
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