Undercover at Amazon

[windermeredave]

Just watched it on catch up TV, and they say slavery doesn`t exist in todays Britain?. well watch this and tell me the same. pickers have to collect around 110 items an hour, every hour (10 hour shifts) the undercover worker collected 72 and was told by a manager, he must get near 105-110. he wore a bracelet that told him the distance he was covering per shift. on days it was around 6 miles and on nights he covered 11 miles
also there is a points system, if you get 3 points you are sacked, have a day off 1 point, sign off sick half a point, come in late half a point, this guy clocked in TWO MINUTES late and earned himself half a point.
wages a little over the minimum. £6-50 an hour for days £8.25 for nights
Disgusting exploitive company

[chrisj]

We have no balls in britain everyone else hits the streets and voices there opinion we just shake our soft heads n moan

I think it depends on the ethics of the whole country in question: remember, we vote for the people that govern and almost all of them are not exactly blue collar worker and/or Union friendly - some worse than others.

France is a good example where they are very quick to down tools but what happens when their actions affects the Brits, we moan; and that is the same thing we do in this country - moan when we are inconvenienced...

The irony is that some of those countries like France, Spain, Greece, Italy etc (not Germany) will like to copy us. The Germans are an exception, they are generally efficient and industrial relations are usually very good because workers rarely takes the piss.

In addition to the not being Union or worker friendly; this country has become a low-wage low hours economy and it is a country that allows the like of Amazon to get away with paying as little corporate tax as possible. As long as these companies create some sort of jobs and the govt in power is happy with employment stats, they will turn a blind eye to exploitations.

Gangmastering is still rife even after the cockle-pickers fiasco...

[veryn]

Christ, and I thought this job was bad! At least we're out in the fresh air.
They don't ever see daylight for 10 hours!

I know they're one of our customers but me personally , I will boycott them now.

I promise everytime I deliver an amazon parcel now, I will think of the poor soul who walked 11 miles with blisters for it =(

[fishtank]

Take away the CWU from our workplace and it would be the same,but with a 30% pay cut as well,throw in the odd late/sick day/not hitting your targets most of us would be out of a job by easter

Who says you need to take away the CWU?
Look at BT and it's "performance management strategy".

A couple of letters from BT union members in this month's Voice.

Stop the bullying!
In the last Voice, Mike Jones from Solent says that he does not remember anyone who has been disciplined or sacked under the BT performance management procedures. Unfortunately I know six members of the GLC branch who HAVE been sacked. In addition, we currently have over 40 members in formal procedures – namely, with the potential to soon be sacked. That doesn’t include the hundreds who are in coaching plans, performance plans or with ‘development needed’ markings. Mike’s right that, if you play by the rules and do a quality job safely, that should be enough. Unfortunately, however, that isn’t the case. Failure to meet targets is the most common reason for being ‘performance managed’ today. It’s time to change this fundamentally flawed system of institutionalised bullying.
Winston Richards, Chair, Greater London Combined Branch

Wake up Mike!
Regarding Mike Jones’ letter in the last issue of the Voice, I work in the Liverpool area
and know of two engineers with over 50 years’ service between them who’ve been
sacked for low productivity. Over the years I’ve worked alongside them both and always found them hard working and competent. Has Mike never heard of MUPs and PIPs, which have often been the start of disciplines for low productivity – or the present ‘one-toones’, which are rolling disciplines in the making? So wake up Mike - it’s coming to the Solent!
Norman Cook, Liverpool

Rosy in the garden?
Concerning the ‘Managing with PM’ letter from Mike Jones in the last issue of Voice, Colin
O’Callaghan replied that increasing numbers are being dismissed on grounds of performance and that some are being offered compromise agreements. I was offered one myself in February this year after 24 years as an engineer. Mike thinks everything is rosy in the garden – which it isn’t – but why has the CWU not communicated this to every Openreach employee from day one, when it first happened? Why has it taken the union so long to do so? Wake up CWU and start doing your job...before mine goes.
Neil Evans, Liverpool

I've spoken to a few BT Engineers and the impression you get from them is that in BT the union is seen as nothing more than facilitator,a rubber stamp for management and has little input in any agreements or decisions.If there is a dangerous precedent for us in the postal side it's BT,similar GPO origins,similar privatisation and the scary thing is engineers should in theory carry more bargaining power than unskilled posties.

[Brain Fury]

Haven't seen the programme but from what I've read the issues seem to be that they are expected to turn up for work on time, achieve a certain pick rate and use a hand held device that tells them what to pick and if they have made a mistake. And they're paid around minimum wage. Welcome to working in a warehouse. I assume there must be something else that has provoked such outrage because that doesn't sound particularly unusual.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

We have no balls in britain everyone else hits the streets and voices there opinion we just shake our soft heads n moan

Do they? Where does it happen then?

Germany ?

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news ... hristmas-0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; German union turns up heat on Amazon ahead of Christmas

http://www.theguardian.com/business/201 ... strike-pay" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; German Amazon workers strike in long-running dispute over pay

[baldrick]

Haven't seen the programme but from what I've read the issues seem to be that they are expected to turn up for work on time, achieve a certain pick rate and use a hand held device that tells them what to pick and if they have made a mistake. And they're paid around minimum wage. Welcome to working in a warehouse. I assume there must be something else that has provoked such outrage because that doesn't sound particularly unusual.

It's the pick rate that seems quite high, 110 items an hour which means virtually running around. The undercover reporter was a young fit guy. He managed to achieve the targets for the first few hours of a 10 hour shift, but couldn't for the last couple of hours. How would an older or less fit person cope?
Also disciplinary 'points' were given for lateness, (half a point), leaving early due to illness (half a point) or having a day of sick (one point). After getting one point in 3 months, you get a warning. After two points you get a final warning, and after three points you get sacked. Sounds quite harsh.

[Brain Fury]

Haven't seen the programme but from what I've read the issues seem to be that they are expected to turn up for work on time, achieve a certain pick rate and use a hand held device that tells them what to pick and if they have made a mistake. And they're paid around minimum wage. Welcome to working in a warehouse. I assume there must be something else that has provoked such outrage because that doesn't sound particularly unusual.

It's the pick rate that seems quite high, 110 items an hour which means virtually running around. The undercover reporter was a young fit guy. He managed to achieve the targets for the first few hours of a 10 hour shift, but couldn't for the last couple of hours. How would an older or less fit person cope?
Also disciplinary 'points' were given for lateness, (half a point), leaving early due to illness (half a point) or having a day of sick (one point). After getting one point in 3 months, you get a warning. After two points you get a final warning, and after three points you get sacked. Sounds quite harsh.

It's difficult to tell how difficult it is without doing it but there would be no point setting an impossible target.I expect that the vast majority of staff meet or exceed the pick rate. Indeed Amazon says the target is based on what people actually achieve. We had a similar thing at the warehouse I worked at which was based on achieving at least 90% of the average actual pick rate. The points system does sound quite severe although in principle there is nothing wrong with it - perhaps that only applies to temporary staff?

[fishtank]

The points system does sound quite severe although in principle there is nothing wrong with it - perhaps that only applies to temporary staff?

I was always led to believe that the best way to maintain or improve performance was to incentivise staff.It would seem that the 21st century incentive is just to keep your job.

The flaw of course is that if you set the bar for failure or penalty at the average rate measured over a six month period then everybody is working hard to either match or better the average and if they achieve that all that happens is the average over the next 6 month period will go up and so on and so forth until such times as the stress of meeting those targets becomes unbearable and the targets unattainable without cutting corners.

Didn't RM have their own office based version of continually moving goalposts called upper decile?
Wasn't that a complete disaster in the end with offices reporting ridiculous and obviously skewed levels of EP/BSI?
I think the best one I heard was an office in the Scottish Borders that reported an EP of 140+.

[Hitcher]

So when's the follow up program on the 'last mile' for Amazon packets?

[Brain Fury]

The points system does sound quite severe although in principle there is nothing wrong with it - perhaps that only applies to temporary staff?

I was always led to believe that the best way to maintain or improve performance was to incentivise staff.It would seem that the 21st century incentive is just to keep your job.

The flaw of course is that if you set the bar for failure or penalty at the average rate measured over a six month period then everybody is working hard to either match or better the average and if they achieve that all that happens is the average over the next 6 month period will go up and so on and so forth until such times as the stress of meeting those targets becomes unbearable and the targets unattainable without cutting corners.

Didn't RM have their own office based version of continually moving goalposts called upper decile?
Wasn't that a complete disaster in the end with offices reporting ridiculous and obviously skewed levels of EP/BSI?
I think the best one I heard was an office in the Scottish Borders that reported an EP of 140+.

You don't incentivise (I assume you mean pay extra money) people to achieve a minimum acceptable standard. As I said I didn't see the programme do Amazon set the rate at the average achieved? Amazon say that people who cannot achieve the set pick rate can be offered other work.

[axeman]

We have no balls in britain everyone else hits the streets and voices there opinion we just shake our soft heads n moan

Do they? Where does it happen then?[/quote]

Oh t-man you do lead a sheltered life look no further than the width of the channel .. you forgotten the blockades of recent times ?

[borders]

the French like a strike !!

[catch22]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/feature.html ... d_i=468294" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[catch22]

wonder if they are trying to defend themselves.