La risposta di Amazon UK

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Giornalista accusa: lavorare da Amazon è come essere in prigione

Del quadro orripilante dipinto da Bloodworth nel suo libro (e confermato da altre inchieste), Amazon respinge tutto.

Innanzitutto, il gigante dell'e-commerce afferma di non misurare affatto il tempo impiegato dai suoi dipendenti per le pause-toilette e, anzi, di assicurarsi che tutti possano raggiungere senza problemi i servizi. L'articolo continua qui sotto.

Per quanto riguarda la questione del raggiungimento degli obiettivi, Amazon spiega che dal 2016 a oggi le cose sono cambiate: il sistema a punti è stato eliminato, e a chi non riesce a garantire una produttività in linea con quanto fissato viene offerto un supporto specifico con un coach, così da aiutarli a migliorare.

«Amazon garantisce un luogo di lavoro sicuro e positivo per migliaia di persone in tutto il Regno Unito, con salari competitivi e benefici sin dal primo giorno» ha scritto l'azienda in un comunicato ufficiale emesso a seguito delle dichiarazioni di Bloodworth. «Ci impegniamo a trattare ogni nostro collaboratore con dignità e rispetto. Riteniamo che queste insinuazioni non dipingano un quadro accurato delle attività condotte nelle nostre strutture».

Di seguito, il comunicato completo emesso da Amazon.

Amazon provides a safe and positive workplace for thousands of people across the UK with competitive pay and benefits from day one. We are committed to treating every one of our associates with dignity and respect. We don't recognise these allegations as an accurate portrayal of activities in our buildings.

We have a focus on ensuring we provide a great environment for all our employees and last month Amazon was named by LinkedIn as the 7th most sought-after place to work in the UK and ranked first place in the US. Amazon also offers public tours of its fulfillment centres so customers can see first-hand what happens after they click 'buy' on Amazon.

Amazon has a range of initiatives to support our people if they become ill at home or at work and we recently extended these to include improved on-site support. We recognize that there are times someone cannot come to work, even if they want to. If someone is ill, we want to help them get back to work when they are fit to do so. We no longer have a points-based attendance policy — we changed it following feedback from out our associates. If someone is sick, we will have a conversation with them to understand their own individual circumstances. We completely support our people, and use proper discretion when applying our absence policy.

As with nearly all companies, we expect a certain level of performance from our associates and we continue to set productivity targets objectively, based on previous performance levels achieved by our workforce. Associate performance is measured and evaluated over a long period of time as we know that a variety of things could impact the ability to meet expectations in any given day or hour. We support people who are not performing to the levels expected with dedicated coaching to help them improve.

Amazon ensures all of its associates have easy access to toilet facilities which are just a short walk from where they are working. Associates are allowed to use the toilet whenever needed. We do not monitor toilet breaks

The pay rate for permanent Amazon's fulfillment centre employees in the UK increases over their first two years of employment, after which time all employees earn 8.35 GBP an hour and above. All permanent Amazon fulfillment centre employees are given stock grants, which over the last five years were on average equal to 1,000 GBP or more per year per person. Employees are offered a comprehensive benefits package, including private medical insurance, life assurance, income protection, subsidised meals and an employee discount, which combined are worth more than 700 GBP annually, as well as a company pension plan.

Amazon also offers employees an innovative programme called Career Choice that provides funding for adult education, offering to pre-pay 95% of tuition and associated fees for nationally recognised courses, up to 8,000 GBP over four years.