Amazon Slammed in BBC Documentary

Amazon has been slammed in a BBC documentary that suggested its warehouse workers were under too much stress and exposed to mental illness as a result.

A Panorama documentary team planted an undercover reporter at its warehouse in Swansea, Wales who was required to do 11 miles of walking in one shift and collect separate orders every 33 seconds.

Amazon said recently it plans to hire an extra 15,000 staff for Christmas. Amazon told the BBC that its 'number one priority' was the safety of staff.

The undercover reporter took a secret camera into the 800,000 sq ft warehouse to act as a picker for online orders. A handset told him what to collect and counted down the seconds, beeping if he made a mistake, the BBC said.


He was told if his work rate was too low he could face disciplinary action. After a 10 and-a-half hour night shift, for which he was paid £8.25 an hour compared to £6.50 during the day, he described himself as 'absolutely shattered.'

He described the experience saying: 'We are machines; we are robots; we plug our scanner in, we’re doing it, but we might as well be plugging it into ourselves.'

An expert on stress at work, Professor Michael Marmot, interviewed by the BBC, said: 'The characteristics of this type of job, the evidence shows increased risk of mental illness and physical illness.'

He described it as 'all the bad stuff at once.'

He said: 'There are always going to be menial jobs but we can make them better or worse. And it seems to me the demands of efficiency at the cost of an individual’s health and well-being.'

The company said it sets performance targets based on previous experience of what is achievable. Night shift workers agree to a four day week but the BBC said it had been advised the length of shift in the programme could break working time regulations due to the strenuous nature of the work.

Barrister Giles Bedloe told Panorama that if the work was strenuous or required mental strain then it should not exceed eight hours in a 24-hour period.

Amazon said it had received legal advice and its regime was lawful.

It said it had invested £1 billion in the UK and created 5,000 jobs. It added that it relied on the good judgement of employees and added: 'Together we are working hard to make sure we become better tomorrow than we are today.'