Panorama programme about Amazon

[alter ego]

Let's be honest, most warehouse jobs are considered to be suitable for unskilled workers, and like most unskilled workers, they get a hard time with physical jobs for the lowest pay, topped with dark ages conditions (my cousin's daughter has a degree, as do some of the other staff there - they just can't get jobs in their fields). The way some of these workers are treated is nothing short of slave labour. They don't call it manual "labour" for nothing.

I worked in the NHS before running my own business and that was a picnic on a desert island - with George Clooney serving the cocktails! No working in cold, unheated/boiling sweaty spaces, taking breaks when they were due (and when they weren't), most staff treating phones and post as their own personal perks, targets loosely enforced, no weekends or night shifts (don't get me started on the horrid conditions of working night shift, mainly down to neighbours' inconsideration when they KNOW next door is on nights and trying to get a kip. Sleep deprivation is a killer - anyone working shifts should be paid at least 20% more and be allowed to retire/move to a non-night shift pattern 5 years early IMO).

I apologise to anyone I seem to have made a sweeping generalisation about here - just my personal experience.

 

[Scout]

The infamous Sandy - she of the 800+ Kipling bags fame - works for Amazon. I joined the Kipling Community once, to see what they're about, and Sandy posts photos almost daily of the bags and purses that have been delivered to her that day. Yes, bagS and purseS - not one, but four or five at a time. Everyone else then posts oohing and aahhing over Sandy's latest acquisitions. It comes across as not being about the bags at all, but about being famous for something. It's all very odd indeed and very obsessive. I didn't stay a member very long.

 

[rainbowdottie]

well thats makes sense as to why she has so many! amazon have really good deals on kipling and if she gets a staff discount on top of that as well....................now it all makes sense!

 

[boffy]

where do you put 800 kipling bags

 

[OscarFelixJake]

On ebay ? :mysmilie_19:

 

[thatu]

Really, though, these warehouses and similar places are the modern equivalent of sweat-shops, pure and simple. Where is health and safety in all this? Why hasn't everywhere that puts its workers through **** like this been spotlighted and investigated before now? It's like a third-world country and those responsible should be named and shamed - then made to work in the same conditions themselves so they could understand what it's like.

 

[donna255]

On other boards this is still being discussed.

A few people posting they have worked there, and it is no way as bad as the undercover report made out. Did he go out of his way to make sure he got pulled for not doing the job. Most said if they had they world work at Amazon warehouse again. The sick thing is to stop what many love doing pulling sickies and get away with it. Quite a few companies do not have sick pay you claim SSP if you take ill.

Sorry thatu, nothing like a third world country. People and children paid 10p a day(if they are lucky), locked in for very long hours like 15 per day, to make clothes for Primark etc, in unsafe buildings. Oh and people still buy the clothes.

Reading round the different online boards people do not really care. They are saying well the Polish will do the job if the lazy Brits don't want to. Pointing out many other jobs where you are expected to walk further. Warehouse work is hard but plenty try to pull fast ones, Amazon and others just make sure you get paid for working not messing about.

 

[Mazza]

The sick thing is to stop what many love doing pulling sickies and get away with it. Quite a few companies do not have sick pay you claim SSP if you take ill.

I do have sympathy with employers when sickies are taken all the time etc. I always worked in offices where your sick leave was monitored and after it reached a certain level (uncertificated) you could be sent to a company doctor and possibly action taken against you, most likely a verbal warning. My problem with Amazon is that this seems to start from the very first time you are ill and genuine illness should not be the disciplinary issue, that should be feigned illness. So if you are sent home for work when you are unwell, I find it truly shocking that a disciplinary action is taken. If, say, you are sent home from work for just p***ing about, then that is clearly a disciplinary matter.

 

[etoile]

Really, though, these warehouses and similar places are the modern equivalent of sweat-shops, pure and simple. Where is health and safety in all this? Why hasn't everywhere that puts its workers through **** like this been spotlighted and investigated before now? It's like a third-world country and those responsible should be named and shamed - then made to work in the same conditions themselves so they could understand what it's like.

I have to agree that the all consuming multi-nationals are trying to import the working practices they exploit across the third world; and with the tacit agreement of government seem to be undermining employment conditions.

 

[mossie269]

The way amazon treat their workers regarding points off for sickness stressful targets etc could loosely be described as bullying at work which i think is illegal now either way i would not want to work for them.