Slashdot Mirror
Exhausted Amazon Drivers Are Working 11-Hour Shifts For Less Than Minimum Wage (mirror.co.uk)
schwit1 quotes the Daily Mirror:
Drivers are being asked to deliver up to 200 parcels a day for Amazon while earning less than the minimum wage, a Sunday Mirror investigation reveals today... Many routinely exceed the legal maximum shift of 11 hours and finish their days dead on their feet. Yet they have so little time for food or toilet stops they snatch hurried meals on the run and urinate into plastic bottles they keep in their vans. They say they often break speed limits to meet targets that take no account of delays such as ice, traffic jams or road closures.
Many claim they are employed in a way that means they have no rights to holiday or sickness pay. And some say they take home as little as £160 for a five-day week amid conditions described by one lawyer as "almost Dickensian"... The Driving and Vehicle Standards Agency has vowed to investigate after drivers contacted them to complain about conditions.
Many claim they are employed in a way that means they have no rights to holiday or sickness pay. And some say they take home as little as £160 for a five-day week amid conditions described by one lawyer as "almost Dickensian"... The Driving and Vehicle Standards Agency has vowed to investigate after drivers contacted them to complain about conditions.
Something you will never hear an American ask themselves.
Generally speaking, when you are buying so much "shit" for so much cheaper than the rest of the world, there is a good chance that this is only possible because a lot of people down the line are being fucked.
But hey... cheap tv for you so who give a fuck, am i right?
Another dipshit who didn't read the summary, let alone the article. It's about Great Britain...asshole
These people are obviously desperate for a job for some reason. Don't pretend like anyone can be a candidate for any job that is available. It doesn't mean they should have to starve, or conmit crimes to make christmas bearable.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
s/asshole/arsehole/g
Noting that Charles Dickens' works were often so long because he usually got paid by the word. (My wife was an English teacher.)
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
11 hour days? Holy first world problems.
Not to say this report isn't important or that Amazon shouldn't do better, but wow is the first world out of touch.
So you want stressed out drivers, holding their bladders while zipping around at high speed in traffic breaking speeding (and probably other) laws in order to make a minimal amount of money?
Sure it's a first world problem but it also has first world consequences that can affect a lot of people. All it takes is one delivery guy to slip up and all of a sudden he's driving a multi-ton vehicle into a crowd of people.
There's a reason that government entities like OSHA exist.
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If you paid them for waiting, then you'd need to cap the number of drivers active in any given area, restrict the areas drivers are allowed to wait and force drivers to take jobs on a rota, otherwise you could have drivers just "waiting" and getting paid in the middle of nowhere so they won't get any passengers.
Conversely, sparsely populated areas would never get any service because it would be unprofitable to pay someone to wait there.
When i lived in a small village there was a part time taxi driver who usually worked on vehicle maintenance/restorations... Because of the low population he might drive one or two jobs a week and make a few extra pennies, and when doing so he'd temporarily down tools on his other job and return to it when he got back. Sometimes if the passenger went to the nearest town he'd use the opportunity to go shopping.
Calling a driver from the nearest town could mean waiting more than an hour for them to arrive, and paying a fare just for them to arrive, plus wherever you wanted to go.
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Well part of what makes these first world countries is the higher standards of living and various employment laws to prevent unscrupulous employers from abusing their employees.
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Bad job?
Quit.
Can't find another job?
Protest.
Protest doesn't work?
Go to war.
This is how things have always worked before, why shouldn't this work now?
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The peeing into a plastic bottle trick is pretty common for “professional” drivers, and the 11-your days seem like a pretty good deal to America s. The thing I dislike about it all is that Amazon, Uber, and Lyft all do things with their algorithms to waste driver’s time and productivity.
Amazon uses boxes grossly larger than needed, and could often get by with bags instead, limiting the number of packages they can take— all while sending multiple drivers to the same address, from the same warehouse, in the course of an hour or two. Lyft and Uber do thing to share load between drivers rather than select the closest to the pickup.
You don't get to pull definitions out of your ass.
It's a viable business. Their employee's lives my not be viable, but that's their own fault. Their purpose is to serve as a warning to the next generation. Don't make the choices they made.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
I know. But what do you propose I do about it? We couldn't even keep Trump out of the Whitehouse. His tax plan is going to f'n kill me (kid in college and I'm in a state with SALT). I'm getting the shit kicked out of me. So are a lot of working class Americans. And all I hear from anyone else ever is: "Why don't you go back to school and update your skills?". Like that's so damn easy.
America abandoned it's working class. Do you really think they care about the rest of the world that abandoned them?
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side stepping minimum wage laws. Thing is, I'm guessing 99% of /.ers aren't in a position to worry about this. What we _are_ in a position to worry about is how 40 years of stagnant wages mean it's harder and harder for us to make ends meet. So we'll turn a blind eye. Thing is this will come around to bite us eventually, but when you're barely hanging on eventually doesn't really matter. Me? I'm just trying to get my kid through college and to hell with everything else. And that about sums it up. The working class is too busy surviving to band together and make a positive change. It's almost as if somebody designed it that way...
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driverless cars actually become a thing, this will become a non-issue.
It will go from minimum-wage to no wage.
Though I suppose they'll still need someone to actually move package from delivery vehicle to home.
Unless they're gonna install a vehicle mounted trebuchet.
The reason americans have become so complacent about getting shit cheap even if somebody else is getting fucked is because usually said people have been/still are being fucked themselves, and without a better company that is ACTUALLY AND VERIFIABLY BETTER, paying more just means being a bigger sucker and not necessarily helping improve the status quo.
America continues sliding further down the shitter because there *IS NO TRANSPARENCY* making the sort of informed decisions that would allow capitalism to work and be beneficial to all, impossible to achieve.
Capitalism only works with perfect information symmetry, the same as the necessary government transparency (including intelligence agencies!) to make democracy work. You can remain opaque for a short while when a specific operation, or external threat renders it necessary, but the longer you allow it to happen the more out of control the powers and abilities of the 'black box' will get, same as DRM, same as undisclosed government contracts, same as 'casting couch' activities.
Information asymmetry is the biggest threat to every aspect of the world (dis)order, and only by providing symmetry can the common folk make informed decisions that will allow them to wrest control back from the wealthy/politically connected few, the indignantly proud, the obscenely corrupt.
captcha was 'leftward', why yes it is... under some definitions of 'left'.
If you don't make yourself available for work, and demonstrate attempts to work then you are likely to get your benefits stopped in the UK. Benefits, even if you are, and among the least generous in Europe.
What are you talking about? Yes we have a surveillance problem, but our police don't go round killing civilians on a whim.
Do you honestly think Amazon can meet their delivery targets with a modest pool of part timers?
Also
> it's something women
What the fuck is this, 1930?
But Bezos is a democrat... you know... that party that is all about the people.
for much of my adult life, I have no sympathy. I'm working several hours more than than that seven days a week. Most of my friends in tech are too.
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The peeing into a plastic bottle trick is pretty common for “professional” drivers
Also small plane pilots. The bottle is way cheaper and more comfortable than buying adult diapers.
Free advice: Do NOT use a bottle that still has an "Apple Juice" label on it.
Amazon uses boxes grossly larger than needed
I have never understood this. I get boxes from Amazon that are WAY too big for the contents all the time. This must be costing them money, for the cardboard, padding, weight, and volume. Why do they do this?
It seems to me that it would be trivial to write some code to add up the size of the contents to pick the right box. A robot could then pull the box and add it to the picking bin.
Amazon uses boxes grossly larger than needed
I have never understood this. I get boxes from Amazon that are WAY too big for the contents all the time. This must be costing them money, for the cardboard, padding, weight, and volume. Why do they do this?
It seems to me that it would be trivial to write some code to add up the size of the contents to pick the right box. A robot could then pull the box and add it to the picking bin.
There is also a cost to stocking shipping boxes that just happen to be the right size for the products you buy. Making things a uniform size has an efficiency (and hence minimizes cost) of its own. EG look at how cargo containers transformed shipping.
Do you really think that given the number of boxes that Amazon ships that they haven't looked at the price/performance of differing box sizes?
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So delivering parcels was always intended to be in violation of the law? Because minors aren't allowed to be delivery drivers.
So they should either commit crimes or die? Or maybe you're in favor of more and more people pulling from welfare.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
OP is correct. if the business isn't able to pay enough to keep it's employees in food, clothing, shelter, etc, then it is not a viable business. If it CAN but won't then it is a leech on society.
That aside: A job this gruel-ing you might want to quit.
Even though the "conditions [have been] described by one lawyer as "almost Dickensian"", I hear that some of them actually ask for more.
There is also a cost to stocking shipping boxes that just happen to be the right size
Instead of stocking boxes, they could just stock flat sheets of cardboard, and laser cut the cardboard to the ideal size on-demand.
But, anyway, I don't think stocking is the main problem. I get boxes that are WAY too big, while on the same day receiving other smaller boxes that would have easily held the contents of the first box. So they clearly had the smaller boxes in stock.
I realize that the Packing Problem is NP-Hard, but there are heuristics that allow an adequate solution. They should be able to do way better.
It also matters how unemployment is counted. In the US the number is severely skewed in favor of those in office. Those who sign up for such jobs typically have not much else to chose from. More opportunity comes from more education and that is in most places getting prohibitively expensive. As far as the UK goes, once they brexited and the economy tanks worse than during Thatcher's time the number of people who can afford ordering crap on Amazon will go down drastically.
Sacrifices have to be made in order to pay for the next royal wedding. And then in a couple of years the next royal divorce.
Any job in which you make less than you need to live is brutal.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
she took them for granted. Given Trump's very highly publicized flaws (p****ygate, his rambling speeches, his decades of poor business decisions) she assumed nobody in their right mind would vote for him. Hence the 'Deplorables' line. What she failed to account for is that people _want_ economic populism. They _want_ the government to take action to better their lives. Trump promised all that (even as he ran with a party who's central plank is laissez faire capitalism).
And no, that is not me. I'm a Democratic Socialist. A Bernie Bro. A Justice Democrat. All members of the working class are welcome in my tent. The aristocracy can enter too, but with some caveats. Mainly that we stop bending society to satisfy their extravagant whims and desires.
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Upon looking, I see that Amazon requires it's drivers to be 21 or older. What was that about being for teens to make extra money again?
not the cause. The cause is 40 years of stagnant wages as all the gains from decades of increased productivity go to the top 1%.
The working class actually tried to organize. Remember Occupy WallStreet? It was shut down by a coordinated effort of the FBI and local police using legal tools put in place by the Patriot Act that everybody pinkie swore would never be used against American Citizens.
What gets my goat is the same folks who keep putting these jokers in power yell the loudest about government overreach except when it screws with somebody they don't like. Whether it's liberal elites, Muslims, college students or just plain whatever racial background they don't like. It's all a scam. It's how the Aristocracy has maintained power for centuries: get the working class to blame their plight on somebody else (Blacks, Hispanics, Muslims, Mongolians, the Untouchable class, whatever) while they laugh all the way to the bank. Works too.
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That has to be the weakest come back ever. It only makes you look stupid and petty in addition to simply wrong.
0.0% since 4 percent means 4 in 100 people can't find work already. What do you suppose will happen to the numbers if everyone who has a less than ideal job quits and refuses to take any less than ideal jobs? You don't seem to realize that most people would rather have a great job, but have to decide if they want to be able to survive and feed themselves and their family or try to live in a perfect world with the perfect job.
Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
That's what they all say. But when the time comes, they all bend over.
It's how late-stage capitalism works.
You are welcome on my lawn.
'Cuz you're doing it wrong - it's hookers and blow.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Just be wealthy, and that won't be a problem.
... after the holidays.
The Driving and Vehicle Standards Agency has vowed to investigate after drivers contacted them to complain about conditions.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
He's such a noob.
If you think I voted for Trump because of this post, you're wrong. I voted for Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party. Again.
The history of the trade Unions in the US starts with Train Unions. And those formed not to demand higher pay but to demand better working conditions, less overwork and gaurenteed return to home after days traveling far from home. Removal of bars in company towns was another demand (train workers were often left to rot in Railtoad owned hotels (bunkhouses) far from home until such a time as they were needed. They had to pay the hotel cost to the owners and they were in the middle of no where so the only thing to do was drink. Which created alcoholics other railroaders were afraid to work with.
THey need a union. that's what unions are for.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
What is the underlying reason for this happening?
Or - is it required to obtain certain goals and what would they be?
Who benefits from it and why are other's paying with their health and well-being?
Reminds me of certain animal species where dominant males kill offspring fathered by other males....
Maybe there is or has been an advantage in evolution for that, but what is the advantage now.
Nothing exists in human behavior without advantage, being it real or imaginary fantasy - i. e. mindfuck.
See here.. The difference is what you were doing was always recognized as illegal but the law was not being enforced. What Uber's doing is generally being recognized as legal.
And you should have been outraged. You were being exploited. Just because there is a time in your life when you were no longer being exploited doesn't mean you weren't. I see this periodically, where people wonder why we need all these regulations, laws and rules when the problems they're supposed to solve are gone. What this usually means is either a) the problem doesn't affect me anymore so I don't see why it's a problem (your case) or worse b) the regulations and laws prevent the problem from happening and people can't understand that without those laws the problem would come back...
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No. women weren't allowed to work in manual labor until the Second World War took all the men away. So, 1940s.
If you think I voted for Trump because of this post, you're wrong. I voted for Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party. Again.
Going through rush hour traffic every single day, dealing with road rage, near-misses, all the time with an unforgiving schedule that doesn't let you deliver just 180 parcels that day.
For less than minimum wage.
Yeah, that does fit the definition of a brutal job.
-=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
just wait for a bad crash with maybe some deaths and what will take a few $1M pay outs may hurt amazons bank account
It doesn't work that way. It can't go to zero as unemployment includes people who voluntarily quit their job to move, look for a new job, etc. Unemployment is currently lower than what economists once predicted was the lowest it could possibly go. One reason it might be so low is because employed people are lining up their new job before quitting their old job. Also, unemployment doesn't include the underemployed or the people not looking for work. i.e. The people who have given up searching.
I dream of a society where ever teenager can buy hookers and blow with their own money without asking for mom or dad to raise their allowance!
Minors not miners.
If you think I voted for Trump because of this post, you're wrong. I voted for Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party. Again.
...for those who don't want to work.
Buddy you should brush up on your rhetoric figures of speech and avoid alienation of readers.
I work very hard and I am being well paid and I should agree with you and join you in your rant against unwilling freeloaders. But I don't. I find your writing unnecessary hurtful.
I hadn't the slightest objection to his spending his time planning massacres for the bourgeoisie... (P.G. Wodehouse)
You know, when you to assemble something, and you have a few pieces (like screws) left over, it's not that you're a genius, and those parts were unnecessary (usually).
I imagine something similar with the employment issue...chronic unemployment issues speaks of a bigger problem, perhaps of some people with an obtuse vision of how things ought to be.
Delusions of grandeur much?
i don't think it's desperation. It's the classic rule that the people who put the least effort into getting their jobs are the people who will work the hardest for the least amount of compensation.
McDonalds for example hires most of their employees by posting a sign on the door saying "no hiring" at which point you see the people behind the counter and see the standards for what they'll hire are about the same as you are...and you fill out an application and unless $20 background search on you turns up something awful, it's time to start training you. Then they'll work you to death, see you as easily replaceable and for the most part would prefer you don't make it through a trial phase as then you might be difficult to fire.
Consider the classic case of the "job creation economy". People voted for Trump and many other politicians over the promises of jobs. I've never ever taken a job which was created as a political promise and in most cases could not be tracked back to government stimulus. But there are a massive number of jobs which exist to deliver jobs to the people. Most people have classically been against immigrant workers because they believe their jobs are being taken by people flooding in to steel them. But those jobs are generally taken by people who actively apply for them.
Automotive, manufacturing, coal, gas, etc... even building space craft and airplanes at Lockheed and co... are all jobs which were created to advertise to the people in one area or another that all they really need to do is show up and they'll have a job.
Most people of the world do not know how to look for jobs. Many people simply don't realize that the jobs are there if they want them or ask the right way. If you want a job and you have an interest in doing something, more often than not, you can find someone to pay you for it. There's also the issue of wanted advertisements in the newspaper (or wherever else). They are almost always written in a concise fashion which scares away 99% of their qualified candidates. You can't just write "We're willing to pay good money for honest people willing to work hard... call 555-1234". They list educational requirements and all kinds of other crap... when they really just need people. But by making it too professional, people will end up working for $5 an hour while sweating the entire time and risking death on greasy floors while paying for expensive work clothes and shoes because someone else was smart enough to keep it simple and write "Help wanted" on a sign.
Most people want to work. If for no other reason but it allows them to have more to their life than just what is on the couch and on the TV. It provides them with a social experience. They don't however want to look for work.
What is worse is that it's clear that Amazon apparently believed they were paying a company enough money to provide these people a good living and making it worth it to them to work hard. Instead, that company was placing their employees in a scenario nearing indentured servitude. They were even charging the guys for the car rental and the fuel.
Amazon should be held accountable for not performing research into their associate companies. They need to ensure they only work with companies who actually are treating their employees at least reasonably. On the other hand, they can't possibly be expected to run their own delivery companies for every single little village out there. It's better to try and find honest people who are willing to hire and manage good people. This makes it so that everyone benefits. If Amazon managed the drivers themselves, those drivers would just be another number in a database. By using courier companies, there is a good chance the owner of the company will take a personal interest in the welfare of his employees.
You should seriously try it.
I haven't, but I've laid bricks, shoveled ditches, built circuit boards, etc... I even held a "Slow/Stop" sign for 10 hours in Florida summer heat at a construction site.
I think it taught me a few important things in life. And I never did those things for more then a few days each. I did learn to respect the people around me. I also learned that what was easy for me wasn't always easy for other people.
As for the driving and delivering packages.... you'd be absolutely shocked how much work that really is.
Occupy WallStreet? The organization created by communists in Canada in order to try and push communist controls. Yeah everyone remembers them.
Om, nomnomnom...
The McD's and the Walmarts are going to have to boost their $10/hr to $20/hr and attract those for which the smell of hot oil and metal shaving is a turn-off
Can tell you're pretty messed up already. Those are the two greatest smells in the world, right beside the smell of heavy axle grease and the "almond" smell of CO from a properly running car.
Go work a trade.
Om, nomnomnom...
If by 'much more generous' you mean you won't have to starve, and you'll have a roof over your head, that's probably true.
I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
More news at eleven. Seriously, just stop buying their crap.
That is such an American viewpoint you have there.
Happened a long time ago when US manufacturers closed plant after plant, and those plant's outputs were replaced by foreign cars from Japan and Korea. Not exactly "sending" the factories to Japan or Korea, but essentially works the same. If a US company is driven out of business by lower-taxed foreign manufacturers, and the demand for product replaced by product made somewhere besides the USA, its the same thing as "sending" that manufacturing out of the country.
Yeah, you just keep applying for work you know you're never going to get if you don't really want to work. But its been easier the last few decades as there really hasn't been any work to find. They don't force you out of your labor category - they don't make lab technicians apply for heavy equipment operator jobs - so if there are no lab tech jobs, there are no lab tech jobs in spite of the construction of the new interstate highway exchange going on within sight of the unemployment office.
And when the unemployment reaches its time limit, you get booted off. Get a job or starve. Well, the OTHER dodge is the welfare system, and particularly there is the "disability" social security benefit that allows people to basically go on public assistance forever, because they supposedly have a bad back or somesuch. Some of these people eventually get noticed in Facebook videos the like cutting a mean rug at a dance, and their medical disqualification from working gets disqualified.
Its not that they are all lazy, either, its just that they really can't find work, or the "work" is idiotically low-pay. I mean, if you can make $X in a disability benefits scam, but can find jobs that only pay 85% of X, why bother? Getting the wages boosted so that the job is paying $1.2X is what we need, and the lower taxes that bring back manufacturing to the USA is one of the best ways to do it.
You're worrying about hurting the feelings of the lazy who instead choose to effectively steal from the public to live while contributing nothing? Bless your heart...
Read down to the approximations solution. As with many NP-hard problems, getting the optimal solution is computationally infeasible, but getting a good-enough solution is fairly easy.
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You're not alone. I too have had concerns about their lack of concern for people, environment or even their customers.
I had flunked out of college for being flaky and immature, and not going to class. I spent a few summers working 80+ hour weeks working at an amusement park as a garbage collector. My work ethic was terrible, my attitude was not professional, and I had no other employable skills. The awful job was the result of my apathy and poor decisions. I eventually matured, went back to school, and pursued a career. I wouldn't want to work at the amusement park again, but honestly, if that opportunity didn't exist, I would have been worse off. I'd imagine that is the case for a lot of other workers in these dead end jobs.
On which demand? The only time this stops being a problem directly for Amazon is after the customer has signed it. The warehouse is only a very small part of the logistics chain.
It depends on the economy. If things are great (from a wider perspective than that of just the 1%), nobody would take these jobs and conditions would improve (or the problem would be avoided).
If you have a large enough bunch of people desperate for money, though, suddenly they don't really have much choice but to be exploited.
We have laws about such things because history shows us enough rich people are OK with defacto slavery that if you let them, they'll enslave everyone they can.
It's a worldwide problem - http://www.asti.org.uk/a-world... - but yeah, the UK has a problem along with stabbings as firearms aren't widely available.
other day on CSPAN2 they interviewed a author that recently published a book about drug dealers, abusive cops. Author mentioned nobody seeks out a career as a drug dealer, almost all make very little money except those very few at top. It is also hard work, long hours, being on the streets even when very cold for all day or night, fear of getting robbed or busted. Reason why many go into drug dealing is because "it is a company town" with no other options.
mfwright@batnet.com
You're worrying about hurting the feelings of the lazy who instead choose to effectively steal from the public to live while contributing nothing? Bless your heart...
The reality is most likely that more decent people have already told you something similar to what I did. And that you still are trying to figure out what the heck they meant. You sound like a tough cooky in need of attention. Go out on a limb and do something nice to someone, anyone, and a first step is set.
I hadn't the slightest objection to his spending his time planning massacres for the bourgeoisie... (P.G. Wodehouse)
First off, this is Amazon UK, and the 'Amazon Drivers' work for shipping contractors, not Amazon. They didn't apply to Amazon for the job, they aren't paid by Amazon, on what basis are they considered Amazon employees? Here in America, countless packages from Amazon are delivered by either UPS or USPS, yet no one considers them 'Amazon Employees', and they are paid better than minimum wages. (The greatest complaint from UPS drivers in America are the number of overtime hours UPS asks them to work, at time and a half, during the holiday season.)
Second, this is the Gig Economy, and these workers are trying to turn a 'pick-up' task that pays poorly into something that can support a family - it ain't gonna happen, not as independent contractors working at a per-piece job where they they are expected to pay for petrol, the vehicle, upkeep on the vehicle, and the insurance on the vehicle out of a few cents per kilometer.
Ken
$14K is full-time employment at minimum wage, after taxes.
Once you 'earn' SS Disability, that is a key that unlocks other benefits - SNAP, housing assistance, free medical care, etc. the average disability claimant receive more total assistance than the average worker in many states.
Ken
No, that isn't the definition of a brutal job, that's called a low-paying job, and the problem these workers have is they fail to realize they are doing piece work as a sub-contractor, literally working for themselves, and they don't understand the economics of the business they entered into. They go out, lease a truck, take out insurance, fill the truck with petrol, then agree to deliver packages at below-cost rates, hoping to overcome the deficit by taking on delivery of ever more packages.
If you are losing money per package, taking on more packages doesn't change the math.
Ken
if the business isn't able to pay enough to keep it's employees in food, clothing, shelter, etc, then it is not a viable business. If it CAN but won't then it is a leech on society.
So the purpose of a business is to feed, clothe, and shelter their employees?
Funny, I never see those metrics in any annual report, instead I see sales, revenues, expenses, and profits.
Ken
women weren't allowed to work in manual labor until the Second World War
Your teachers failed you, women worked in manual labor for centuries before World War Two...
Ken
You assume that Amazon has NOT hit upon a "good enough" solution?
The boxes you complain about typically aren't big enough to incur a size charge, so box size doesn't affect shipping costs.
The price difference between a small box and a teeny box is very small, so small that as the order quantity of boxes goes up into the millions of units the price difference becomes irrelevant.
The real cost is time, if an employee can pack more packages in less time using over-sized boxes compared with taking the time to consider getting a smaller box and saving Amazon a few pennies on the box, then the bigger box will be used.
Ken
These drivers are self-employed, paid per-piece.
Ken
These drivers are self-employed independent contractors.
Ken
Amazon's 'trick' is to hire an outside shipping firm which in turn hires independent contractors to deliver local packages.
Using a shipping company to ship packages is a standard business practice, not a 'trick'.
Ken
And hey get a per KM allowance to cover the expense - your point?
Ken
The drivers are self-employed independent contractors, why would Amazon be on the hook for million dollar settlements?
Because their return address is on the box in the car when it hits someone? Do lawyers go rummaging through the boxes on a UPS truck when a big brown truck is involved in a traffic accident?
Ken
Drivers are self-employed independent contractors, they don't have an HR department.
Ken
I thought this article was about Amazon UK?
Ken
How many days a week?
Define 'no break'. You don't get a meal break? They lock the bathrooms?
Being in a temperature-controlled room for 10 hours, four shifts a week is not 'just like' driving a delivery truck 60-70/hrs a week.
Ken
Did you also correct the post I replied to that said they only started in the 1930s?
Just checked, and no you didn't.
I was specifically talking about the "Rosie the Riveter" factory jobs that were not filled by women until WW II.
If you think I voted for Trump because of this post, you're wrong. I voted for Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party. Again.
UPS is the shipping co. Fedex is the one that missed classified drivers as 1099. Any ways in a court case if they can prove that the level of control makes them non self-employed then the shipping co / amazon may be on the hook. In this case Amazon will be hard pressed to say each driver is there own shipping co.
So you think the business would do just fine if it's employees were all naked half-starved hobos? Or do you believe businesses have a netural right to make you pay half their payroll for them? Perhaps you'd like to pay their light bill too?
Perhaps a bigger problem with OWS was that they were against stuff, not for things. They never did come up with a reform plan that people could get behind. If they did, they could have formed a group in the Democratic party to push for financial reforms. The demonstrations would have helped get the movement going, but shutting them down wouldn't have stopped the Occupy movement.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
its employees
neutral? natural, spoken with a South African accent?
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Surry, i dun''t gi've a fly-''.!ing FICK.