[ad_1]
Amazon announced Thursday that it will pay over $1.9 million to more than 700 migrant workers who faced abusive working conditions at the company’s warehouses in Saudi Arabia. The payout aims to settle claims that workers suffered human rights violations and labour exploitation while contracted by third-party agencies to work at Amazon facilities in the region.
The settlement comes after investigations last fall by human rights groups and media outlets documented troubling accounts of how Nepali and other migrant workers were deceived and forced to pay illegal recruitment fees to obtain jobs with Amazon in Saudi Arabia. A report by Amnesty International found that workers were subjected to squalid living conditions, financial extortion, and situations amounting to human trafficking.
Concurrently, a probe by the Guardian, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), NBC News, and other outlets uncovered similar abuses – with migrant workers paying over $800 in recruitment fees and misled into taking out high-interest loans, only to end up in cramped, bedbug-infested housing without access to drinkable water.
In response to the revelations, Amazon engaged the labour rights firm Verité to review the situation. Verité identified numerous violations of Amazon’s supply chain standards, including substandard accommodations, wage theft, and delays in addressing worker grievances.
Amazon stated that it has worked to upgrade housing and improve complaint mechanisms. But the company acknowledged its responsibility, saying in a blog post that “although contracted workers are not Amazon employees, we are equally committed to workers who support our operations through third-party vendors.”
The $1.9 million settlement intends to reimburse over 700 affected workers for recruitment fees they should not have paid in the first place. With the average payout over $2,500, Amazon said granting this money to workers was its priority, though the company ultimately bore the reimbursement cost.
The issues spotlight Amazon’s troubled labour rights record worldwide, including federal probes into its workplace safety practices and opposition to unionisation efforts in the US.
Last October, the National Labor Relations Board’s general counsel alleged that Amazon violated labour laws during the spring union election at its warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama.
The settlement comes after investigations last fall by human rights groups and media outlets documented troubling accounts of how Nepali and other migrant workers were deceived and forced to pay illegal recruitment fees to obtain jobs with Amazon in Saudi Arabia. A report by Amnesty International found that workers were subjected to squalid living conditions, financial extortion, and situations amounting to human trafficking.
Concurrently, a probe by the Guardian, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), NBC News, and other outlets uncovered similar abuses – with migrant workers paying over $800 in recruitment fees and misled into taking out high-interest loans, only to end up in cramped, bedbug-infested housing without access to drinkable water.
In response to the revelations, Amazon engaged the labour rights firm Verité to review the situation. Verité identified numerous violations of Amazon’s supply chain standards, including substandard accommodations, wage theft, and delays in addressing worker grievances.
Amazon stated that it has worked to upgrade housing and improve complaint mechanisms. But the company acknowledged its responsibility, saying in a blog post that “although contracted workers are not Amazon employees, we are equally committed to workers who support our operations through third-party vendors.”
The $1.9 million settlement intends to reimburse over 700 affected workers for recruitment fees they should not have paid in the first place. With the average payout over $2,500, Amazon said granting this money to workers was its priority, though the company ultimately bore the reimbursement cost.
The issues spotlight Amazon’s troubled labour rights record worldwide, including federal probes into its workplace safety practices and opposition to unionisation efforts in the US.
Last October, the National Labor Relations Board’s general counsel alleged that Amazon violated labour laws during the spring union election at its warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama.
[ad_2]
Source link