Amazon.com, Inc. and the Human Cost of Fast Shipping
| Case Code: HROB203 Case Length: 18 Pages Period: 2015-2020 Pub Date: 2019 Teaching Note: Available |
Price: Rs.400 Organization: Amazon.com, Inc. Industry: Retailing Countries: United States, United Kingdom,Australia, Germany, France Themes: Industrial Revolution 4.0, Ethics in Information Technology, Compensation Policy, Logistics & Supply Chain |
Abstract Case Intro 1 Case Intro 2 Excerpts
Introduction
"You spend 10 hours on foot, there's no windows in the place, and you're not allowed to talk to people – there's no interactions allowed. I got a sense in no time at all that they work people to death, or until they get too tired to keep working. After two months, I felt I couldn't work there and maintain a healthy state of mind," said a former worker who worked for just two months at the warehouse of the online retail giant Amazon.com, Inc. (Amazon) in Chesterfield, Virginia. Amazon was well known for offering its customers fast, convenient, and cost-effective shipping options. However, there were an increasing number of reports emerging of the grueling working conditions at the company's fulfillment centers. Reports surfaced that workers were not allowed to sit when working – even pregnant workers were not given a concession – that they were scrutinized even for the toilet breaks that they took, and that the distance to the toilets was so long and the breaks so short that some of the workers urinated in bottles and trashcans. Several workers did not drink water when at work as they were apprehensive that going to the toilet would prevent them from meeting their punishing targets.
There were also reports of the stringent productivity targets that Amazon set for its warehouse workers – a worker who picked products to be shipped to customers was required to pick at least 250 products per hour and a worker who packed the products was given a target of packing at least 200 items per hour. Workers who failed to meet the targets were often fired. Eyebrows were also raised when reports started emerging about the disproportionately large number of times ambulances were being summoned to the company's fulfillment centers. According to observers, the drivers of Amazon’s delivery vans, who were responsible for last-mile delivery to customers, were given targets so stringent that several of them urinated in bottles in their vans to avoid taking toilet breaks and often exceeded the speed limits.
There were also reports of Amazon's fulfillment center workers in Scotland residing in tents close to the warehouse even during the harsh winters to avoid paying transport fees to private transporters which would have effectively prevented them from earning even the minimum wages...
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