Monday, November 25, 2013

Quote of the Day - The Amazon Automatons

"We are machines, we are robots, we plug our scanner in, we're holding it, but we might as well be plugging it into ourselves. We don't think for ourselves, maybe they don't trust us to think for ourselves as human beings..." - Undercover reporter Adam Littler

Adam Littler, 23, got an agency job at Amazon's Swansea warehouse. He was employed as a "picker", collecting orders from 800,000 square foot of storage, involving up to 11 miles of walking - where an undercover worker was expected to collect orders every 33 seconds. A handset told him what to collect and put on his trolley. It allotted him a set number of seconds to find each product and counted down. If he made a mistake the scanner beeped. The scanner tracked Mr Littler's picking rate and sent his performance to managers. If it was too low, he was told he could face disciplinary action.

Professor Michael Marmot, one of Britain's leading experts on stress at work, said the working conditions at the warehouse are "all the bad stuff at once".

Professor Marmot said: "The characteristics of this type of job, the evidence shows increased risk of mental illness and physical illness. There are always going to be menial jobs, but we can make them better or worse. And it seems to me the demands of efficiency at the cost of individual's health and well-being - it's got to be balanced."

Experts have told Panorama these ten and a half hour night shifts could breach the working time regulations because of the long hours and the strenuous nature of the work. Barrister Giles Bedloe said: "If the work involves heavy physical and, or, mental strain then that night worker should not work more than eight hours in any 24 hour period.”

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