Panorama - Amazon: The Truth Behind The Click; on BBCiPlayer

[KK]

It's the online retailer that has transformed the way we shop, but how does Amazon treat the workers who retrieve our orders? Working conditions in the company's giant warehouses have been condemned by unions as among the worst in Britain. Panorama goes undercover to find out what happens after we fill our online shopping basket.



Internet giant Amazon works its warehouse staff ‘to the bone’ in long and relentless shifts, a former employee claimed yesterday.

Graduate Adam Littler, 23, said he walked up to 11 miles as he worked 10-and-a-half hour night shifts inside the online retailer’s giant distribution centre in Swansea.

He was expected to collect a customer order every 33 seconds and told BBC1’s Panorama he was subjected to ‘unbelievable’ pressure to meet efficiency targets.

Amazon staff have previously revealed how they have been tracked by GPS tags inside the company’s eight UK warehouses and even had toilet breaks timed.

One employee at the warehouse - otherwise known as a ‘fulfilment centre’ - in Rugeley, Staffordshire, likened conditions to a ‘slave camp’.

The American company, which employed 15,000 in its UK warehouses in the run-up to last Christmas, is currently approaching its busiest period of the year.

Amazon has denied exploiting staff and said its productivity targets were set according to performance levels achieved by its work force.



[Insert statistic about football pitches here]

But experts, including Professor Michael Marmot, of University College London, have questioned if conditions inside the firm’s giant warehouses could increase workers’ risk of mental or physical illness.

Mr Littler wore a pedometer after he was given a job as a ‘picker’, pushing trolleys around and collecting customers’ orders from the shelves, at Amazon’s 800,000sq ft distribution centre in Swansea.

Pickers are given handheld scanners which calculate the most efficient route to collect items, and tell them if they are hitting their targets.

The documentary, due to be screened tonight, shows him racing to beat the scanner’s digital countdown to collect each item.

‘You all literally work to the bone and there doesn’t seem to be any reward or any let-up,’ he said.

‘I’ve never done a job like this before. The pressure’s unbelievable.’ Mr Littler was recruited via an agency for seven weeks’ work. He spent four weeks on the day shift, earning £6.50 an hour, before moving to night shifts on £8.25 an hour.

He claimed he worked four nights a week for 10-and-a-half hours, including a paid half-hour break and two 15-minute unpaid breaks.

Employment barrister Giles Bedloe said night shifts involving heavy physical work should be limited to eight hours in any 24-hour period.

Mr Littler’s scanner set him a target of collecting 110 items per hour, but he said he rarely hit the target. After working one night shift, he said: ‘I managed to walk or hobble nearly 11 miles. I’m absolutely shattered.’

Former workers have claimed the firm imposed a ‘three strikes and release’ discipline system to sack workers who did not meet targets.

Amazon has also come under pressure for its use of controversial ‘zero-hours’ contracts and for its tax avoidance practices.

Figures supplied to the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee showed its UK sales were £7.1billion between 2009 to 2011. But its UK company, Amazon.co.uk Ltd, paid only £2.3million in corporation tax as the majority of its sales were handled through its European subsidiary in low-tax Luxembourg.

Although tax avoidance is legal, Amazon’s rivals have complained it has an unfair advantage as it can offer cheaper prices.

Amazon said an independent expert had advised them that its pickers experienced similar conditions to workers in other industries and did not face an increased risk of mental or physical illness, and that its safety and illness records were better than industry competitors.

Recruits are warned the job is physically demanding, it said, and all shift patterns meet legal requirements.

A spokesman said: ‘The safety of our associates is our number one priority and we adhere to all regulations and employment law. Independent legal and health and safety experts review our processes as a further method of ensuring compliance.’

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03k5kzp
http://www.dailyfail.co.uk/news/article ... -bone.html

Never shopping at Amazon again!

Might be a lie.

Is a lie.

[Fatal Exception]

Yeah but dat Prime next day delivery.

[Poser]

Well, as long as it's not foreign/overseas workers they're exploiting, I can sleep at night.

[Qikz]

If we were all going to stop buying from places who exploit workers we may as well shut down society since every major company in the world does it in some way or another.

[False]

I dont give a strawberry float. I want my prime deliveries now.

If you dont like it then dont work there.

[Scotticus Erroticus]

I worked in Amazon's warehouse for a short time and I can tell you it's really, really tough. It was the type of work that would leave your hands sore at the end of the shift, akin to a Victorian mill. Supervisors are constantly on your back, even if you are doing well. I reached my targets (barely) but was still let go after 3 weeks. Wasn't worth the money. Nothing wrong with a bit of hard work, grafting can make people feel good about themselves and their employers; but there really is a difference when you're at the mercy of a psychological whip!

[Lotus]

Doubt that much – if anything – will come of this. People are far more interested in getting a good price for something and prompt delivery/service than other people’s working conditions.

Assuming that what they’re doing is legal, I can’t see them changing anything. The demands aren’t ideal perhaps, and the job could be easier, but you could say that about lots of jobs. There are people who do it and manage, and there are others who can’t/don’t. Amazon only cares about the former, I’m sure, and I reckon the public in general do too.

[JChalmers]

Will give it a watch tonight.

Will it sway me into not ordering from Amazon, will it strawberry float.

[Mommy Christmas]

Graduate Adam Littler, 23,

That's your problem right there. Workshy shite.

[Moggy]

They might be terrible to their employees, but at least they pay our Government loads of lovely tax money.

Wait....

[floydfreak]

Graduate Adam Littler, 23,

That's your problem right there. Workshy shite.

have to agree with that he should be happy to have a GOT the job in the first place.

[Mafro]

There used to be an Amazon warehouse just up the road from me, I know a few folk that worked there and they all pretty much echo what Scotty and some of that article said. It sounds like an utter shite place to work.

[Trelliz]

I haven't bought anything from Amazon for a long time, mainly because they insist on using Yodel/HDNL, and after I had to go to their depot to collect my package as they claimed to have delivered it but never turned up (the antithesis of a 'delivery' company), I decided to never buy directly from them again. I'm sure that's a whole other story.

[Irene Demova]

I'm the 4th day into a Yodel next day delivery right now, if I'd chose the cheaper option and got it sent by post I'd have my order at this point

The monopoly amazon have and the way they keep it is worrying but when they're significantly cheaper (and typically faster) than the alternatives I'm not likely to stop using them. They also have a much better returns policy than some of the alternatives

[Miguel007]

What a time to show this documentary, it's their first day of Black Friday Deals Week. I'm just heading over to see if there are any bargains to be had!

[Mafro]

What a time to show this documentary, it's their first day of Black Friday Deals Week. I'm just heading over to see if there are any bargains to be had!

Yeah that timing surely can't be a coincidence.

[BID0]

I don't understand why they're complaining, they get to play Supermarket Sweep every night AND get paid for it.

[TigaSefi]

Amazon deals or welfare of the workers? *click click click* is the winner!

[Wiggy G32]

I work for shall we say a high street retailer and this doesnt surprise me the company i work for does the same sort of gooseberry fool. For instance sick pay has been stopped where i work so if your ill your strawberry floated. Oh and we dont even have a coke machine at work anymore as the company says there to expensive to run....

[Barley]

Yeah, most of the guys we put in there (I work for a work programme provider) don't last more than a couple of weeks because of the terrible conditions. I've heard of people being told they arent allowed toilet breaks until they have picked a certain amount or improved their pick rate etc. It's pretty much 100% agency staff which means the work force is entirely expendable so they can do what they like. The money is sh*t as well. The semi skilled workers like fork-lift drivers for example are massively underpaid compared to other major warehouses in the area.

I still use amazon.