Al Haqeeqa
US-based conglomerate Amazon has yet again stirred a controversy over the treatment of its employees here in India. According to a report published by the Indian Express, workers at Amazon India’s Haryana warehouse have been subject to tough conditions of work with no breaks and penalties for being human.
A young worker from the warehouse in Manesar told the IE that the workers were forced to take a “no break” oath till targets for the day were met. The employees are legally entitled to breaks, however, the employees are policed over washroom, tea and water breaks.
The targets generally include strenuous physical activity including unloading or loading trucks. The target for these employees is unloading 6 trucks, each 24 feet tall. “The worst affected are women. The trucks are hot from being parked outside, and when they unload articles, they get exhausted quickly,” said an employee.
One worker told IE that employees were forced to take an oath to forgo all breaks, including, washroom and water. One team that deals with articles coming to the warehouse took an oath with times in a month. Even after forgoing their lunch and tea breaks, they would not be able to unload over four trucks.
Amazon India has denied the claims. However, an official said that are investigating the claims. “But to be clear, we’d never make these kinds of requests on our employees as part of standard business practice. If we discovered an incident such as the one that’s been alleged, we’d immediately put a stop to it and ensure the manager involved was re-trained on our expectations of team support, health, and safety. We’ll continue to investigate,” the person was quoted as saying by IE.
Amazon India employees have also alleged that washrooms are regularly checked to ensure no time is being “wasted” by employees. In one instance, an employee was resting in the washroom, when the supervisor caught her and threatened to have her ID blocked.
Despite assigning a medical or sick room, no employee is allegedly allowed to rest for over 10 minutes and is sent back.
One employee in charge of customer returns, who earns Rs 10,088 a month is expected to stand for nine hours a day and check 60 small products or 40 medium-sized ones to check products eligible for returns. Their department was also forced to take a similar oath.
Not the first time for Amazon
This is not the first time that the conglomerate has faced such allegations in India. Amazon’s policies have also been condemned at an International level. According to a report by the Guardian, the US had also issued citations against the company over unsafe warehouse working conditions in 2022 and 2023 on six instances.
Under the Factories Act, of 1948, factory workers who work for over nine hours a day or 48 hours a week are entitled to twice the stated wages. However, workers’ groups claim that laws are not being followed. The also entitles workers to rest at an internal at least every five hours for 30 minutes.
