UK Amazon Staff Being Mistreated?

Holiday staff at Amazon UK have accused their employers of treating them “harshly.”

According to this article in the Times, your average Amazon UK employee only gets two short breaks during an eight hour shift. While the Christmas temps are only getting paid £6.50 ($10) an hour, they have to pay their own transport fees of £8.50 ($13) a day, and they have to work seven-day weeks.

Those poor suffering tykes allegedly have to walk up to 14 miles, and make “ridiculous” packing quotas.

Amazon failed to dispute the allegations, with the VP of European Operations, Allan Lyall, saying, “Every single member of the Amazon.co.uk workforce… is currently working flat out to ensure that our millions of customers receive the products that they have ordered on time this Christmas. Our number-one focus is our customers and everyone at Amazon works hard on their behalf.”

Patty Smith (US spokeswoman) has said, however, that “There were many inaccuracies in the UK article. Case in point: We don’t allow [fulfillment center] associates to work more than six days a week in any location – they must have at least one day off.”

Personally, I’d like to invite any “hard done by” Amazon staff to work in any of the retail game shops or supermarkets, and then see if they want to beg for their old job back.

Source: ZDNet