Working at Amazon

Trollslayer

This article on the BBC News website matches a lot of others from different sources:
Amazon staff 'treated like robots'
It reminds me of Fritz Lang's Metropolis:
Metropolis Movie Review & Film Summary (1927) | Roger Ebert
I pretty much stopped buying from them over a year ago.

Bl4ckGryph0n

Let the free market do its job. If it is true and people don’t like working there and they keep sacking them, then they will run out of staff. They will then have an opportunity to change their ways and improve conditions.

Unemployment is already at a very low level if not the lowest. So a bit surprising that if that is true they get away with it.

But too be fair, people are there to work, not do 20 minute dumps whilst catching up with avforums.

Don’t like the terms and conditions then one should leave. No better signal to give than that.  And totally within your own power, don’t need no pesky unions for that.

doug56hl

Amazon recently announced pay rises: In the UK 40,000 permanent and temporary staff will get an increase to £10.50 an hour in London and £9.50 across the rest of the country.

Maybe co-incidentally Amazon is also looking to replace staff by real actual robots rather than just treating people as robots...
Amazon employees are now being replaced by ROBOTS | Daily Mail Online

Amazon now has more than 100,000 robots in action around the world, and it has plans to add many more to the mix.
As Amazon Pushes Forward With Robots, Workers Find New Roles
(has some videos of them in use)

Bl4ckGryph0n

My daughter (16) was quoted £11.70 an hour. Not bad I'd say. A heck of a lot more than when I was at that level in the market.

Robot's are the way forward, definitely.

nabby

When I was 16-18 and worked on the checkouts at my local ASDA on Saturdays (more during school holidays) I got £4.50 an hour (about £9.05 in today's money, including Outer London weighting).  

However, I also got a highly subsidised staff restaurant, 20% off everything in store and, most importantly, double time plus TOIL for Sundays and Bank Holidays.

I also wasn't on a zero hours contract and at risk of being replaced by a self-service check-out. And I wasn't paid less than older colleagues just because I was younger.

ashenfie

My son works at amazon Northampton. The pay is inline with other warehouse employers.

Regards working speed, all the other employers fire slow employees, so no difference there. Good luck with the robots, expensive not always that good. Hence we have People packing for around £10 a hour .

Werewolfs

Maybe Amazon could treat its staff with a bit more value then perhaps productivity may go up in line with it.
I mean its not rocket science if you treat your employees better the better they work for you.

Sonic67

Note, my missus was working at McDonalds. She left and is now working at Asda. While going through the process of joining Asda, she did look into working at Amazon. Others in her situation and who also were joining Asda all told her not to work for Amazon.

I'm sure it does suit some but it was just something I was reminded of when I saw the thread.

Bl4ckGryph0n

Then you have chosen to totally misinterpret my comment. There was no contempt for the working man/woman (whoever that demographic is? Aren't we all working?), on the contrary. I'm all for empowerment, any employer will change its ways if it affects their bottomline. The reality is that it is low skilled work, many want to do it, it shouldn't be a longterm aspiration for anyone, so what is the problem. Roll up your sleeves and get on with it, or if you can't stand the heat or speed then go work somewhere else.

Pacifico

Thats a commercial decision for Amazon - if they can fill all the jobs they need to on the current T&C's why do they need to increase costs by improving them. When they cannot fill jobs then they will change their T&C's.