Wed 13 Nov 2019, 07:53 AM | Posted by editor
LETTER from Mark Langabeer, Newton Abbot Labour Party member
Dispatches investigated the apparent unstoppable growth of Amazon this week. This company has around a third of all on-line sales in the UK. Its success is based on being the cheapest and quickest supplier of goods worldwide. As an undercover reporter discovers, this success is also based on exploitative practices.
The reporter started work at an Amazon warehouse and quickly discovered that you are closely monitored by the bosses. Apart from the first week, speed becomes all important and spending more than 10 minutes away from your work-station would get you into trouble. The company only employ a limited number of staff on permanent full-time contracts. They described this as ‘blue badge status ‘ and even absence due to ill-health can disqualify you from obtaining a ‘blue badge’.
On one occasion, the fire-alarm sounded and there was confusion about the location of assembly points. There was no check on who had left the building either. The reporter felt that this episode fell well below the duty of care that employers should provide to its staff. The work is physically demanding, affecting shoulders, knees and feet. Despite an advertising campaign by the company, suggesting that Amazon is a good employer, many former workers dispute this.
Dispatches also revealed that the drive for profit was endangering consumers as well. They discovered high levels of a chemical compound called DEHP, in a number of children’s products. The EU ban items that have high levels of DEHP, because it can effect male fertility. The company was also supplying books promoting anorexia. These have been withdrawn, however. Dispatches interviewed a dietitian, who explained that Amazon were still flogging material that encouraged unhealthy dieting.
Amazon have also got into hot water with regard to the level of tax it pays. The company sold £11 billion-worth of goods in the UK last year and paid only £220 million in tax. This amounts to around 2% of it’s sales and as a former Inland revenue inspector explained, international tax laws are not working and need to change. Rather than seeking to change the law on taxation, the Tories embrace the tax dodging of the major corporations.
In my opinion, the adage that you don’t control what you don’t own is entirely justified. Labour should bring Amazon into public ownership and the profits should be channelled into improving not just the lives of it’s staff, but for all in society.
