The seven hundred workers will split the money.
As a result of exploitative labour contracts, Amazon would pay out $1.9 million to more than 700 migrant workers in order to address charges of human rights abuses committed by the company. This information was published by CNBC. The affected workers were employed at two of the company’s warehouses located in Saudi Arabia at the time of the incident.
The problem was confirmed by Amazon in a blog post, in which the company stated that it has appointed an independent labour rights expert to assess the conditions of the warehouse. A number of infractions of Amazon’s supply chain rules were discovered by the organisation. These violations included “substandard living accommodations, contract and wage irregularities, and delays in the resolution of worker complaints.”
This comes as a result of a research that was published by Amnesty International in October of last year. The report outlined a variety of claimed violations of human rights that were experienced by individual workers who were hired to work in Amazon facilities in the region. The report also mentioned that a significant number of the affected workers were “highly likely to be victims of human trafficking.” Despite the fact that Amazon was aware of the significant risk of labour abuse when operating in Saudi Arabia, the investigation stated that the company “failed to take sufficient action to prevent such abuses.”
According to NBC News, stories that were published simultaneously by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and the Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism provided in-depth assessments of the conditions that these labourers were reportedly subjected to. The investigations revealed that in order for workers to be hired, they were required to pay illegal recruitment costs that may reach up to $2,040. The migrant labourers, the majority of whom were from Nepal, were compelled to take out loans with hefty interest rates as a result of this reality.
It was also discovered by the investigators that these workers were living in deplorable conditions. According to one of the workers, he was living “in a crowded room with seven other men, jammed with bunk beds infested with bed bugs.” It was reported that the water was salty and that it was not drinkable. In a statement that echoed these results, Amnesty International stated that the rooms “lacked even the most basic facilities.”
According to the allegations made by Amnesty International in its study, the combination of the expensive hiring fees and the loans that were associated with them constituted “human trafficking for the purpose of labour exploitation as defined by international law and standards.”
Amazon has made it clear that it has “remediated the most serious concerns” regarding the two Saudi warehouses, which includes providing an update to the housing accommodations. “Our goal is for all of our vendors to have management systems in place that ensure safe and healthy working conditions; this includes responsible recruitment practices,” the business noted. “This includes responsibility for the recruitment of employees.”
It is important to note that although the total amount of $1.9 million may appear to be rather big, it actually amounts to approximately $2,700 for each employee. The total amount of money that Amazon made in 2023 was $576 billion, which is equivalent to more than $1.5 billion every day.
Regarding the labour force, Amazon does not have a particularly impressive track record. The company is frequently accused of violating labour rules, particularly at the several goods warehouses that it operates. As a result of the fact that many of these accusations include attempts to prevent workers from unionising, the firm is likewise vehemently opposed to labour unions. Amazon has been punished by federal safety inspectors for exposing warehouse workers to hazards that were not necessary, and the company is currently the subject of many ongoing federal investigations into its compliance with safety regulations.
Despite this, the firm continues to be stubborn in its efforts to gradually diminish the rights of its employees. Amazon, along with Elon Musk’s SpaceX and the grocery store behemoth Trader Joe’s, has lately submitted a court filing in which it asserts that the National Labour Relations Board (NLRB) violates the Constitution. The National Labour Relations Board (NLRB) is an autonomous agency of the federal government that has been in operation since 1935 and is responsible for enforcing labour laws in the United States.