Amazon planning on offering flexible working amid demands for better pay and GMB’s attempts for the retail giant to recognise the first ever union attempt in the Coventry branch.
Amazon planning on offering flexible working amid demands for better pay.
The online retail giant will offer parents and grandparents the ability to take six weeks off during the school summer holiday and two weeks during the Easter break, but those attempting to organise in the warehouse have shot back with their repeated demand for increased wages.
GMB, the union seeking to be recognised by Amazon said: “What they’re telling us is that they can’t live on poverty pay.”
Amazon hope their proposal will help more people rejoin the workplace.
The regional operations director Neil Travis told BBC News:”We spent a lot of time listening to our employees, and one of the things that we were learning is that they really wanted more flexible opportunities.”
He added that the new contract – which comes amid the Coventry warehouse seeks to establish the brand’s first-ever trade union in their UK operations, which has a workforce of 700,000 people – will still give staff the right to have full-time benefits.
Amazon – who say they favour speaking to workers as individuals instead of reckoning with a collective – have been dealing with 16 days of strike action in their Midlands site as staff have been demanding a pay rise.
GMB’s Amanda Gearing welcomed the move for flexible working but pointed out their main demand was getting their wages up to £15 an hour
The senior organiser said: “I don’t think this is what they’re looking for right now. They want more money in their pocket, what they’re telling us is they can’t live on poverty pay.”
Amazon – who argue their current pay rates are competitive after raising by them 10 per cent – would not confirm or deny if they would recognise the 8,000 member union if they sought the threshold.
Amazon offers flexible working amid demands for better pay
