Hundreds of Amazon warehouse workers have walked out in protest over pay after being offered an hourly wage increase of just 35p per hour.
Around 800 workers walked out of the warehouse in Tilbury, Essex on Wednesday and Thursday, according to the trade union GMB.
It comes as the rising cost-of-living sparks strikes across sectors and is the latest challenge to the online retail giant which has faced criticism from workers in many countries over pay and conditions.
GMB said workers at the Essex warehouse, which has seen 178 ambulance call-outs since 2018, are ‘seeking a £2 per hour pay rise to better match the demands of the role and cope with the cost-of-living crisis’.
Videos posted on Twitter and TikTok today show the warehouse workers sitting in the cafeteria, refusing to work. Amazon have not commented on whether the walk-out has led to any delivery delays.
The U.S. tech giant, whose UK sales topped £23 billion last year, said the starting hourly rate would increase from £11.10 to £11.45 in an email to their staff at the Tilbury warehouse.
Up to 800 Amazon workers at a warehouse in Tilbury, Essex (pictured) have walked out in a protest over pay
The offer of a just over 3% pay rise comes as the Bank of England today warned that inflation could hit 13% this year.
A 24-year-old packer said he joined the sit-in protest because he doesn't think he should have to work six days in order to pay rent 'and live a normal life'.
Marius Brezeanu told the BBC: 'For a couple of months, I have been eating just one meal a day [to save money].
'We will continue [to protest], everyone is still motivated to do it.'
Another warehouse worker, Giedre Simkiene, said the pay offer was a ‘joke’ seeing as most of her bills had doubled in recent months.
The 38-year-old said she would not back down until she got fair pay, adding that some of her colleagues had ‘chickened-out’ after the General Manager told them they wouldn’t get paid if they didn’t get back to work.
She told MailOnline: ‘There were about a thousand of us until the General Manager came and said if we didn’t go back we won’t get paid.
‘She said if we are not happy we are free to go home and find another job.
‘If I do not get paid I don’t care, I just need to get a proper salary.’
Steve Garelick, GMB Regional Organiser, said: ‘Amazon is one of the most profitable companies on the planet. With household costs spiralling, the least they can do is offer decent pay.
‘Amazon continues to reject working with trade unions to deliver better working conditions and fair pay. Their repeated use of short-term contracts is designed to undermine worker’s rights.
‘The image the company likes to project, and the reality for their workers could not be more different. They need to drastically improve pay and working conditions.’
The warehouse workers were offered a 35p-per-hour pay increase, more than five times less than the £2 demanded by union GMB
Amazon said their workers receive a 'competitive' salary that is above the Real Living Wage but workers are not happy with the 35p-per-hour pay rise in light of the current cost-of-living crisis
An Amazon spokesman said: 'Starting pay for Amazon employees will be increasing to a minimum of between £10.50 and £11.45 per hour, depending on location.
'This is for all full-time, part-time, seasonal, and temporary roles in the UK.
'In addition to this competitive pay, employees are offered a comprehensive benefits package that includes private medical insurance, life assurance, income protection, subsidised meals and an employee discount among others, which combined are worth thousands annually, as well as a company pension plan.'
Videos shared on social media show Amazon workers at the Tilbury warehouse sitting in the canteen instead of working
Warehouse workers are staging a 'sit-in' to protest the pay offer, with the impact on deliveries currently unknown
The spokesperson said the minimum hourly rate paid to Amazon associates in the UK has increased by 29% since 2018 and added that the wages being offered to warehouse staff are well above national minimum wage, currently £9.50 per hour, and the Real Living Wage, £9.90 per hour or £11.05 in London.
Last month Amazon drivers and warehouse staff signed an open letter calling on the online retail giant to stop forcing them to work at an 'inhuman pace'.
With increased pressure in the lead up to Prime Day, the workers pleaded with the company to 'bin unfair targets' and end the 'constant surveillance'.
Pay and conditions at Jeff Bezos' online retail giant have been criticised by employees from around the world. Pictured: The Amazon founder and his girlfriend Lauren Sanchez in London today
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has a net worth of $165 billion while his workers at the Tilbury warehouse have just been offered a 3% pay rise
Amazon could run out of warehouse staff to hire in the US by 2024
Amazon could run out of new people to hire by 2024, with the company burning through its entire warehouse workforce annually thanks to grueling shifts, a leaked internal document reveals.
The document, first reported by Recode, includes the words: 'If we continue business as usual, Amazon will deplete the available labor supply in the US network by 2024.'
The document was published internally in 2021.
According to Recode, an Amazon spokesperson did not refute its authenticity.
They said: 'Working in an Amazon warehouse today is so stressful. Even the tools we use, like scanners, are tracking us.
'We're always worried about how many seconds we have left to pick up a parcel. We can't even see all of the targets you track - and it makes it impossible for us to know if our jobs are ever safe. We try to keep up, but it wears people out.'
With nine in ten UK shoppers using Amazon, the company's UK sales have grown from £3 billion to nearly £27 billion in a decade.
It currently employs around 33,000 people within its warehouse and logistics workforce.
The pandemic has only added to the rise of online shopping, with over half (55 per cent) of shoppers saying Amazon had proven essential during the lockdowns in 2020.
But staff have told how the pressure put on them to deliver such targets has turned them into 'slaves' and robots'.
It was reported last year that ambulances had been called to the firm's 'fulfilment centres' nearly 1,000 times since 2018 - including 178 callouts to the site in Tilbury.
One Amazon worker who works at Amazon's Midlands site told how they had been 'unfairly' sanctioned over a recurring health issue.
They claimed they had to keep coming in to work while unwell as a single day off would extend the sanction and lead to more disciplinary issues.
Speaking to the Daily Mail under the condition of anonymity, they said: 'This led me to feel worthless for talking about my illness in the first place as it only made the situation worse.'
The company's founder Jeff Bezos, who has a net worth of $165 billion, was pictured with his model partner Lauren Sanchez as they left the Ham Yard Hotel in Soho, London last night.
Ms Sanchez, 52, carried a pink crocodile Hermes Birkin bag that is worth around $100,000 in the latest picture from their UK trip.
Bezos is thought to have spent $109 (£90) per ticket for up to 30 of his family members to be shown around Buckingham Palace's art collection on Monday.
It's unclear when exactly the businessman first started dating Sanchez, but it's been said that they got together while he was still married to his ex-wife, Mackenzie Scott.
Their affair was exposed by the National Enquirer in January 2019. Soon after, the businessman split from his wife of over 25 years and the mother of his four children.
English (United States) ·