By Eric King-
Amazon has been slammed for allowing their workers in Scotland to live in a state of financial struggle where they are having to sleep in tents.
At least three tents have been pitched in woodland near the M90 motorway in Dunfermline, Fife – close to one of the retail giant’s “fulfilment centres”.
Employees were found in three tents in Woodland near the M90 motorway in Dumfermline, close to one of its fulfilment centres.The staff are believed to be saving money on travel costs to allow them to continue working for the company which does not pay staff a living wage.
They were sleeping in woods near the warehouse to save money on transport Cascade News
Amazon workers in Scotland have resorted to sleeping in tents near the company’s warehouse in a desperate attempt to save money.
Critics said Amazon should be “ashamed” and demanded it raise workers’ wages to enable them to commute from their homes.
Amazon Have A Value Of £290billion
The company, which was founded by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos in 1994 with a global value of £290 billion, has no excuse for not taking very good care of all their employees. They have enough money to ensure all their employees can comfortably travel to work and also earn a decent wage. This sort of bullying is bad for their reputation and reflects horribly on the giant company.
Willie Rennie, leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, said: “Amazon should be ashamed that they pay their workers so little that they have to camp out in the dead of winter to make ends meet.
“Amazon need to take a long, hard look at themselves and change their ways.
“They pay a small amount of tax and received millions of pounds from the SNP Government so the least they should do is pay the proper living wage.
“The fares the company charge for transport swallow up a lot of the weekly wage which is forcing people to seek ever more desperate ways of making work pay.“
With temperatures so low at -7C in the area in recent days, fears about the welfare of the workers have become serious.
Amazon Have Huge Staff
Amazon have about 1,500 permanent staff employed at the Fife facility, while temporary workers are also hired to meet demand in the run-up to Christmas
A statement from Amazon’s spokesperson was far from satisfactory. It read: “Amazon provides a safe and positive workplace. The safety and wellbeing of our permanent and temporary associates is our number one priority.
“We are also proud to have been able to create several thousand new permanent roles in our UK fulfilment centres over the last five years.
Amazon Must Improve Standards
The rest of the world is ashamed of Amazon. They must improve their standards. Whilst the rest of the country is appalled about the inadequate treatment of their workers, they put out this superficial statement.Reports from staff to have been fined for returning one minute late after a lunch break and made to work four days in a row without sleep is disturbing. It borders on abuse, and the government really should step in to regulate Amazon amid this unacceptable behaviour.