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Amazon Australia executives have denied paying staff as little as $ 10 a day after fees and forcing delivery people into unsafe situations as they face a grill in Parliament.
The Transport Workers Union (TWU) accused Amazon Australia of failing to properly train its delivery drivers, some of whom were paid between $ 10 and $ 15 a day.
The TWU said the safety of delivery people was also threatened by demands for an “unreasonable number of deliveries in short windows,” describing Amazon Flex as “one of the most dangerous last mile delivery options in the industry. transports”.
But appearing before a Senate inquiry on Thursday, Amazon insisted its contractual partners, through whom it hired around 60% of its warehouse workforce, were complying with Australian law.
He said workers were paid $ 108 for each four-hour block completed, or $ 27 an hour, but did not say whether workers were required to cover their own costs.
“No one who works for Amazon, or who works for Amazon, is paid below minimum wage. We say this categorically, ”said Michael Cooley, Amazon Australia’s director of public policy.
Amazon Australia Public Policy Officer Ryan Smith said staff, employed directly or through an agency, had received adequate training and mentoring, which was “in our best interests.”
But when he insisted on documents leaked to Vice News, appearing to show that Amazon was monitoring the activity of unionized workers in the United States, Mr. Cooley did not specifically respond to the allegation.
Rather, he claimed that Amazon maintains security to ensure the safety of its employees and property “like any other responsible company.”
“Any attempt to sensationalize these activities, or to suggest that we are doing something unusual or wrong, is incorrect,” he said.
US Amazon web services designer Tim Bray left the company in May 2020, saying it had fired employees for expressing concerns about the safety of warehouse workers during Covid-19.
“The justifications were laughable; it was clear to any reasonable observer that they were being harassed for whistleblowing, ”he wrote in a blog post announcing his resignation.
But Mr Cooley categorically rejected Green Senator Mehreen Faruqi’s suggestions that the company operated on a “culture of fear.”
“They are bogus and they are not meritorious,” he said.
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