“It all went by how long you've been tenured with Amazon,” they said. The Massachusetts worker said that the workers at their facility had gotten their raises in October-the amounts, they said, ranged from 25 cents to $1.25. Having that extra money helps during Christmas time and with inflation.”Īmazon spokesperson Kelly said the company had not implemented peak pay for the year, but that it had invested $1 billion into giving the majority of hourly employees raises this year. As a father and everything, I pay rent, I have oil for heat. “People say, ‘Well, if you don't like it, quit,’ but it's not that easy nowadays. “We deserve fair treatment,” the Massachusetts worker said. This is a small contribution we can do in order to ease that for you.’ The company keeps making more money from us. “Like, ‘Hey, we recognize that this is a really tough time, especially during the holidays, and realize that we're making you work 55-hour weeks right now. “The $3 was barely worth it, but at least that's something,” the Midwest worker said. Holiday pay is by no means required, but it is common across industries-however, workers across multiple locations told Motherboard that they had not gotten peak pay this year, and that their management had not addressed why, even after being asked. For the past two years, workers said, they would receive an additional $3 per hour during peak season. Workers complained that Amazon was not offering peak pay, an initiative it introduced during the pandemic. The first break hit, and out of the 25 people, only five came back.” ![]() We had an orientation group of 25 new people. They see the workload that comes in, and say, ‘I’m not making nearly the money that I deserve in order to do this job.’ So a lot of people just stay for an hour or two. “One day we were 40 people short, because people don’t want to come in. “We absolutely are feeling that we're very understaffed right now,” an Amazon warehouse worker in the Midwest said. The thing about trucks that most people don't realize is that it's extremely hard on your knees, because you have to get in and out of a truck 200 times a day.” It's going to be detrimental to their health. “It's a ridiculous pace to ask anybody to do. “A lot of people dropped out before the holidays because they knew what was coming with the schedule and with the workload,” one Amazon driver in Virginia said. Amazon already has an industry-high turnover rate of 150 percent, which is largely attributed to hourly employees quitting-and workers say that the impending stress of the season made even more people leave. As the holidays approach, companies like Amazon get a massive influx of package orders, and they usually opt to schedule their workers for longer hours to be able to meet delivery deadlines. Peak season is famously difficult in the delivery industry. “It takes a rigorous toll on us, both physically and mentally.” “We are put through a very grueling and unsettling process during the peak season,” the Massachusetts worker told Motherboard. Peak season at JFK8 started on Black Friday and is slated to end on Christmas Eve. He wrote that workers were never required to work more than 60 hours a week, or more than 12 hours a day. Motherboard obtained copies of Amazon Peak fliers for the season after they were included as an exhibit in a filing by the National Labor Relations Board earlier this month.Ī screenshot of JFK8's peak schedule from the NLRB filing.Īmazon spokesperson Steve Kelly told Motherboard in an email that the company’s peak season starts mid-October and ends in late December. ![]() They have us slated to work past working time.”Īmazon knows that working peak season is exhausting, but tries to put a positive spin on the whole situation. I haven’t heard of a case of them not giving that notification, or saying that you can leave when it’s time to leave. “If there’s overtime available, they give us the option. In peak season, Amazon implements what it calls mandatory extra time, or MET, to be able to meet its delivery requirements. ![]() “During peak, gives you a notice that they may call MET,” the Great Lakes region worker said. The workers spoke on the condition of anonymity, because they could lose their jobs for talking to a reporter. An Amazon spokesperson told Motherboard that workers’ contracts explicitly allow them to speak to reporters. Motherboard spoke with five Amazon workers in warehouses and delivery centers across the country about their experience working during peak season. “Peak season at Amazon is exhausting,” one warehouse worker in the Great Lakes region said. One worker told Motherboard that the company had brought in 25 new hires to take on some of the work-and before their first day was over, 20 of them had left.
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