Amazon has been accused of targeting 60 trade union members with disciplinary action after narrowly defeating a recognition vote at its Coventry warehouse last summer.
The GMB trade union said all 60 workers were involved in action at the warehouse – where it has about 700 members out of a workforce of at least 1,500 – that culminated in a ballot on formal recognition in July last year that failed by only a handful of votes.
One worker at the warehouse said there had been multiple rule changes to productivity targets and how “non-productive time” – such as trips to the toilet or equipment failure – were recorded and assessed since late last year, with delays in dealing with queries. Workers had fallen foul of those rule changes, leading to written warnings and the threat of dismissal, they claimed.
“A lot of people are not even aware of these adjustments and changes,” he said. “If you were not performing well you used to get a message saying ‘come and talk to managers’ within 48 hours. Now they let it stack up for a significant time and they are really tough with us.”
He said delays in dealing with queries meant workers often could not remember why they had stopped work for a few minutes – whether it was equipment failure, a trip to the bathroom or a chat with a manager or colleague.
Amanda Gearing, a GMB senior organiser, said the number of disciplinary actions had increased significantly since the ballot and Amazon was “clearing out what they see as troublemakers” as it tried to win new government contracts.
She said a recent GMB survey of union members working for Amazon found that 81% were unhappy working for the company.
It emerged last year that Amazon’s cloud services arm was awarded contracts with the Home Office, HMRC and Department for Work and Pensions worth more than £1bn in the 12 months to September.
“Amazon is one of the globe’s wealthiest corporations, taking revenge against their own workers for daring to stand up for better pay and safer conditions,” Gearing said. “They’re hoping the new government will look past their record of poverty pay, unsafe conditions and union busting and write more blank cheques for taxpayers’ money”.
Amazon said it did not monitor toilet breaks and there had been no changes in the amount of break time staff receive.
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A spokesperson for Amazon said: “These claims are entirely untrue. Amazon has no record of who is – and who isn’t – a union member. With regard to the wellbeing of our employees, we have comprehensive policies in place and make adjustments to support any employees with illness or disabilities.
“We regularly, and anonymously, give our team the chance to feed back on job satisfaction, and in the last survey of all our Coventry team members, 89% said they tell their friends and family that Amazon is a great place to work.”
