Amazon.com Workers File Suit over Unpaid Time
More workers at Amazon.com’s warehouses—that some describe as high-speed, high-tension sweatshops—have filed federal court suits against the company and its contractors that supply the mostly temporary and low-paid workers for workplace rules that require them to undergo unpaid security checks at breaks and the end of their often 12-hour shifts.
The most recent legal action comes from workers at distribution centers in Kentucky, Tennessee and Washington State. Those suits follow one filed by Amazon.com warehouse workers in Nevada.
According to the complaints, writes Dave Jamieson at The Huffington Post, the workers have to go through a security checkpoint at the end of their shifts, as well as at the beginning of their unpaid breaks. Workers typically line up to pass through a metal detector, and they may have their bodies passed over with wands or their bags searched by guards if they happen to set the detector off. The searches usually take about 10 minutes but can be as long as 30 minutes in peak holiday season. Says Jamieson:
Collectively, the complaints suggest that Amazon's policy of forcing workers to wait in security lines without pay is common practice at its growing number of distribution centers throughout the country. The suits also reveal some of the labor penny-pinching that's enabled the world's largest online retailer to undercut competitors with such fast and cheap shipping.
In July, after President Obama appeared at an Amazon.com warehouse in Tennessee calling for creation of “middle class jobs,” we reported on working conditions at the online retail giant’s warehouses, including workers walking more than 10 miles a shift, temperatures as high as 110° F and with their productivity tracked by a scanner.
Workers are pressured to keep up dangerous levels of work for shifts that last 12 hours or more. Workers say they are constantly in fear of being written up or fired for not working fast enough. Employees reportedly have to participate in phone conferences where there was screaming and constant complaints that production numbers weren't high enough, regardless of how high they were. Several former managers said they were retaliated against for complaining about work conditions.
