Online retailer Amazon has become one of the most well-known firms in the world. First entering the UK market as a bookseller in 1998, the US Company has subsequently greatly expanded the range of products it sells, which now includes household goods, music downloads, and electronics among other things. In 2016, Amazon announced plans to increase 3,500 new jobs, linked to the development of new products and services-such as expansion into delivering fresh food-taking its UK workforce to over 15, 000. However, along with other leading multinationals, such as Google, Vodafone, and Starbucks, Amazon paid just 11. 9 million pounds in tax. It was able to do this because the ownership of its UK business has been transferred to a subsidiary based in Luxembourg, an arrangement that reduces its UK taxi liability.
But tax is not the only aspect of Amazon’s business which has come in for criticism. The company’s approach to work and employment relations matters has often been a source of concern for many. Professional, technical, and managerial staff based in the US have drawn attention to the highly competitive working environment propagated by Amazon and the presence of intensive and punishing work regimes. Women employees seem to be particularly disadvantaged by an excessively strict and punitive system of performance management and discipline- one was given a performance improvement plan after having had breast cancer- and the company has been the subject of numerous complaints about unfair treatment and discrimination.
In the UK and Europe, though, it is the state of working conditions in its mammoth warehouses-or ‘fulfilment Centre’- that has generated the most controversy. Trade unions like GMB claim that many of Amazon’s workers have low pay and poor conditions, with wages often at, or just above, the statutory National minimum wage. Work in its warehouses is often highly insecure, with many staff taken on through temporary employment agencies rather than hired by the firm directly, meaning that they can be disposed of more readily when they are not needed. Amazon chooses the location of its centers very carefully. They are often situated in parts of the UK which are quite deprives economically, and where there are few alternatives sources of employment- such as Yorkshire, South Wales, and Staffordshire. Not only does this enable Amazon to access government grants and loans for creating jobs, but also ensures that it can take advantage of a vulnerable workforce, who are particularly dependent on the company for their livelihoods. Working conditions in the warehouse themselves are highly oppressive. Workers are required to use electronic handsets which specify the precise time needed to select a product. They have complained about the intense pressure involved in processing orders, with their movements constantly tracked throughout the warehouse to make sure they are keeping up to speed, and disciplinary action taken against those whose performance is deemed not to be up to scratch. Workers have described how they feel they are treated as ‘machines’. It seems inevitable that such intense and highly stressful working conditions will damage their physical and psychological health and well-being.
The organisation Amazon anonymously founded in 2013 specifically to campaign against the company’s taxation and working practices. It has called for consumers to boycott Amazon and use other retailers for their purchases. Workers and unions have also taken action to highlight the problems in Amazon, and to try and improve pay and working conditions in the company. In February 2013, for example, the GMB union organized protests outside nine of Amazon’s warehouses, including Doncaster, Swansea, and Milton Keynes. It says its aim was to draw attention to the low pay offered by Amazon, and to get the company to agree to pay its entire staff a ‘living wage’- enough for workers to actually live on. Amazon itself, however, rejects the claims that it is a bad employer, saying that it provides its staff with ‘safe and positive working environment, which includes on the job training and opportunities for career progression’. The company also says that its permanent workforce enjoys benefits such as healthcare and pensions plans.
Like many US companies, Amazon opposes trade union representation for its staff. When it was becoming established in the UK, it was able to prevent a union presence by using a combination of targeted rewards, the establishment of staff consultative forum, and threats against employees with strong union sympathies. The assistant Secretary of the Scottish trades Union congress has claimed that Amazon is a ‘predatory, anti-union’ employer, which offers jobs with weak employment standards. Since 2013, Amazon workers organized by the Verdi union in Germany have made efforts to improve pay in the company, bringing into line with the collectively bargained industry rate, something that has included a series of strikes. All this shows that while Amazon clearly make strenuous efforts to regulate work and employment relationships unilaterally, the experiences of its workers, along with the support from unions and campaigners, have generated significant degree of contention.
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