An Amazon employee works in the stow area at the Amazon fulfillment centre in Brampton on July 21, 2017.When Tim Bray quit his Amazon job in May, the Vancouver-based vice-president did not go quietly. He resigned “in dismay,” he wrote in a widely viewed blog post, amid safety concerns for workers.
Across the United States, nearly 20,000 employees have tested positive for COVID-19, Amazon said in October. In California, a months-long state investigation is under way into how Amazon has treated its warehouse workers during the pandemic, while in France, unions successfully sued the company last year over concerns about overcrowding and a lack of health measures.
To understand the safety pressures and risks that the pandemic has fuelled inside Amazon’s warehouses in Canada, The Globe spoke with warehouse workers in Ontario and organizations supporting them; it reviewed complaints related to COVID-19 made to ministries of labour, along with order summaries, andIn Ontario, at least three dozen COVID-19-related complaints to the Ministry of Labour against Amazon reveal an array of concerns.
When workers have tested positive, there’s been little communication, said the employee, who has worked in one of the company’s Peel Region warehouses for the past year. “They don’t say what department or where; night shift, day shift, they don’t say.“They’re really taking advantage of workers because everybody is so desperate for a job, especially at this time,” the employee said.
Amazon was already the world’s largest online retailer before the pandemic and the public-health crisis has only boosted its global sales. Posting record profit last year, the company is rapidly expanding across the globe. At the same time, Amazon has come under growing scrutiny for its labour practices, in particular, the safety of its workers during the pandemic.
Workers are worried “that if there is an infection, that they might take it home with them. The anxiety levels are very, very high,” she said. Fears of reprisals by the employer “discourage people from reporting any unfair or unsafe work,” she added.
Uncanny Almost as if this was written to order If workers feel they need more protection why isn't Amazon providing it? No, it's all about the bottom line And apparently the power No one feels sorry for Bezos