Posted on 11/26/2017 11:23:05 PM PST by Oshkalaboomboom
Amazon's staff are falling asleep on their feet and being taken away in ambulances as they struggle to meet warehouse targets, an investigation has claimed.
Cameras monitor every move as employees try to process up to 300 items an hour, it has been alleged. Screens remind them if they are falling short.
Exhausted staff are said to cover clocks so they are not reminded how long there is to go on their shifts, and have to walk up to a third of a mile to use the toilet.
The claims in a newspaper were made about the online retailer’s newest warehouse – which the company refers to as a ‘fulfilment centre’ – in Tilbury, Essex.
The packing plant is the biggest in Europe, the size of 11 football pitches, and is due to ship 1.2million items this year.
But the investigation, by an undercover reporter for the Sunday Mirror who spent five weeks there, suggested workers suffer mentally and physically as they try to meet demand.
He said that some of his colleagues were so tired from working 55-hour weeks that they would ‘sleep on their feet’.
‘Those who could not keep up with the punishing targets faced the sack – and some who buckled under the strain had to be attended by ambulance crews,’ he added.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Smart move, especially around the holidays. I have Amazon Prime and use it quite a bit. My only issue with Amazon Prime is there are times I wish I could pick the delivery date myself. I don't always want two day delivery and would really like to have packages delivered to my house on my work from home days.
Using a collection point kind of defeats the purpose of Amazon IMO. I have AP because I want packages delivered to my home. I don't want to deal with the traffic around where I live to get to a collection point. Especially when that collection point is inside a Kohls, attached to the local mall .... and it's Christmas shopping time. Uggghhh!!
Exactly. When you understand there’s always a “man behind the curtain” with these stories, it becomes easy to spot “him”.
It appears Amazon is in year 4 of a 5 year contract with the post office. I still find it odd that UPS would hand off the package in a metro area unless it was for special delivery. I live about 5 miles from both the UPS and post office facilities.
Thanks for writing this. We have a lot of clods on FR who apparently don’t understand that some people have bad work conditions. It’s one of the reasons we once had unions.
They just opened a huge Amazon warehouse one town over from me. I wonder how it’s working out.
Some of you here sound like the Monty Python Yorkshiremen, lol.
So Amazon, which tries very very hard to cowtow to the left, is doing precisely that which communists claim that businesses do: exploit employees.
The boss man is worth mega billions, and he pays the employees as little as he can get away with. He runs the wash post, a liberal rag.
But he gives much bucks to democrats, and so he is given a free pass.
No one forces then to remain....
And they have a job.
Things could be worse.
I used to work for a guy who was Special Forces in Vietnam. When he returned, he went to work for UPS and couldn’t hack it.
These guys work hard and from what I understand are pretty well compensated for it.
I ordered something last month. I didn’t realize that it was shipping from Korea. We tracked the shipment. It took 3-4 days to get to the US from Korea and 2-3 weeks for USPS to get around to delivering it.
When I got the item, a pair of fleece lined pants, they didn’t come close to fitting. Large in Korean sizes aren’t Large in America.
Anyone want a free pair of skinny winter camp pants? Yea, me neither.
54 hours?
My longest work week was 121.5 hours. It was sandwiched between weeks of 100+ hours.
I never bitched once.
Cannery in Alaska.
Paid for may college.
My first job had 100 hour weeks.
Worked every holiday from New Years to New Years.
Thanksgiving meal was a bag of Cheetos and a Dr. Pepper on the side of the road.
Got a lot of good work experience and learned a lot.
Maybe it was a customs delay had something to do with it..
Written, supposedly, by the great Marty Feldman.
Seriously, the hilarious responses to this story (I worked 200 hours a week! I had to crawl out of a shoebox every morning to go to work!) are ridiculous. Every American should be entitled to decent working conditions and if the phonies who run Amazon are violating labor laws, they should be held accountable.
“Got a lot of good work experience and learned a lot.”
Amen to that.
They ought to try working a production line in a tier I auto stamping plant......
I live in Spain, struggle with the language when dealing with rapidly speaking native speakers and live at a location that isn't easy to find if you don't know the area. Trying to deal with a delivery person on the phone can be a nightmare and I've missed deliveries because of it. Our collection point is easy to get to, 5 minutes away and I never have a problem. Even if I had Amazon Prime I would still use it.
We also ordered items on separate days so they probably won't arrive at the collection point on the same day. Since I know they will hold it for 2 weeks I just wait for a notification for the last package and save myself a trip.
Held accountable for what? And what labor laws is Amazon violating?
You take a job knowing upfront that you are working in a distribution center that is known for a quick turn around on delivery and also who’s busiest time of year is at Christmas and that OT is to be expected and the work load is going to be intense, but then whine and complain over working a measly 55-hour week, but with anything over 40 hours a week paid at OT?
Cry me a freaking river …
I’lll bet they make a ton of money for working hard.
Bezos knows how the game is played, doesn’t he?
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