Tens of thousands of UK employees will receive a pay increase of almost 10% from Amazon, following the trade union GMB’s unsuccessful attempt to gain the right to collectively bargain for compensation and working conditions.
According to the online retailer, depending on the location. The increase would raise minimum pay rates, by 9.8% to £13.50 to £14.50 per hour. Employees who have worked for three years or more will be paid a minimum of £13.75 to £14.75 per hour.
The pay increase will begin on September 29 for thousands of Amazon workers, including delivery drivers and those employed by the company’s UK fulfilment centres.
UK-based Amazon workers have recently gone on strike. The business asserted, that it has invested £550 million in raising employee pay since 2022. Additionally, it stated that workers received free meals and discounts.
A spokesperson said: “We are pleased to announce that in addition to continuing to provide benefits, that are among the best in the business from day one. We are raising the minimum starting pay for all frontline employees to the equivalent of more than £28,000 annually.”
“This is too little, too late from Amazon bosses who have been forced to act by worker’s industrial action,” stated GMB organizer Rachel Fagan. Because of how it has treated its employees, Amazon has a terrible reputation, and now its executives are attempting to hide the truth. Every day, Amazon employees suffer from hazardous working conditions, inadequate compensation, and overbearing surveillance.
At an Amazon warehouse on the outskirts of Coventry, the GMB narrowly lost a statutory ballot in July that would have officially recognized the union. 50.5% of employees voted against the proposal in a fiercely contested poll.
Over the last 18 months, Coventry workers have gone on several strikes in protest of their lack of pay and their inability to bargain directly with management. They are demanding a minimum wage of £15. Trade unionists from the US and Europe who had brought up similar issues in their own countries joined them on the picket line last November.
As part of its global policy, Amazon refuses to work with unions, claiming that it would rather deal directly with employees. Jeff Bezos started the retail-to-cloud services company in 1994 out of his garage, and it is currently valued at almost $2 trillion.
Within the Coventry warehouse, some employees accused Amazon of using union-busting strategies, such as showing QR codes that, when scanned, sent an email to the GMB membership department canceling an employee’s membership.
The Labour government has pledged to facilitate trade union recognition as part of a set of policies meant to increase the UK workforce’s bargaining power.
