After six months of shifts moving boxes at an Amazon
warehouse near Mexico City as a contract worker, Jaime Hidalgo believed job
security and brighter prospects beckoned when he received the company’s “blue
badge” making him staff.
اضافة اعلان
Hidalgo, 35, was convinced the mandatory overtime and
60-hour weeks had been worth it as he became a fully-fledged Amazon employee —
but within weeks he was fired when a stomach bug meant more bathroom breaks and
less time on the warehouse floor.
He is one of 15 former
Amazon.com Inc. workers in Mexico who
told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that they were mistreated or unfairly
dismissed after being recruited through labor agencies to work in warehouses
for the e-commerce giant.
Interviews with workers, copies of pay slips, and
WhatsApp messages from Amazon HR reveal that many had to work overtime beyond legal
limits while others were let go without severance, forced to resign, or laid
off after falling ill with
COVID-19.
“I felt the world crashing down on me,” Hidalgo said of his
dismissal by Amazon having initially been recruited by one of the third-party
firms used by the company to grow its workforce.
“You feel betrayed and disappointed,” added Hidalgo, who was
fired in December and now works for another online retailer.
In response to a list of questions, Amazon did not address
individual worker accounts but said it complied with labor law in all the
countries where it operates and “nothing was more important than the safety and
well-being” of its employees.
Three labor lawyers, however, said several of the practices
described by the former Amazon workers broke Mexican labor law, from excessive
forced overtime to the use of contractors for non-specialized work and layoffs
without severance being paid.
In an interview, the head of Mexico’s Ministry of Labor and
Social Welfare’s Decent Work Unit, Alejandro Salafranca, said there had been no
complaints about or federal labor inspections of Amazon facilities in recent
years.
The conditions described by the former Amazon workers could
be grounds for an inspection by labor officials, he said.
In response to Salafranca’s comments, Amazon said it was
proud to contribute to the Mexican economy providing a wide range of jobs while
complying with applicable legislation.
The findings come as a Mexican law to restrict
subcontracting was passed this month which supporters say will improve labor
rights and could force Amazon and other companies to hire most of their workers
directly as staff.
The reform was designed to stop the proliferation of illegal
subcontracting arrangements, which have become a “breeding ground” for labor
abuse, Salafranca said in an interview.
Mexico’s workforce is mostly informal and low-paid and the
coronavirus pandemic has cost millions of jobs, leaving more people competing
for fewer positions.
While Amazon is facing labor battles in nations from the
United States to Germany, there has been little scrutiny in Mexico, but the new
subcontracting law could change that by prohibiting the subcontracting of jobs
to third-party agencies except for specialized services.
“There’s a call to companies ... to really take on a bigger
social responsibility, to accept that this system has to change,” said Senator
Napoleon Gomez, who heads the Senate labor committee and advocated for the law.
Amazon said it had created at least 10,000 direct and
indirect jobs in Mexico since opening its first warehouse in 2015.
“All our workers receive a competitive salary and legal
benefits and we are clear with our workers about the expectations and
work-related benefits that we give,” a spokeswoman for Amazon in Mexico said in
an emailed statement.
More than two-thirds of Amazon’s Mexico warehouse workforce
is outsourced to contractors — known informally as a “shadow workforce” —
workers estimated. The company does not publish any such data and declined to
give a figure when questioned.
‘They pretend it’s great’
When Amazon opened a major warehouse in Mexico State in 2019
— its largest in Latin America — operations director Luis Correa stood next to
local officials and said the company had created thousands of jobs with
comprehensive benefits “from day one”.
But the reality was different for the 15 former workers and
one current worker interviewed for this story, who started work for Amazon as
subcontractors without the perks of staff roles.
Most of those interviewed spoke to the Thomson Reuters
Foundation anonymously to protect their jobs or due to fear of reprisals. Two
were let go during the reporting of this story.
Only one worker among those interviewed had received a copy
of their contract as required by law. Labor lawyers said the lack of paperwork
and nature of subcontracting meant complaints were difficult to pursue.
Many of the workers — who got paid about 25 pesos ($1.25) an
hour plus bonuses, above the minimum wage of about 18 pesos — said they were
often forced to do overtime under the threat of losing pay or being fired.
According to testimonies from nine workers and WhatsApp
messages from Amazon, overtime was often mandatory and beyond legal limits
which cap extra work at 57 hours and only in extraordinary circumstances.
“NOTE: Remember that when it’s mandatory overtime and you
don’t come it counts as an unjustified absence,” read a WhatsApp message from
Amazon HR in one worker group. The same phone number was on the Facebook
profile of someone listed as an Amazon HR employee.
Amazon said it offers workers the possibility of extra hours
with higher pay in line with the law and many workers “appreciate this
approach”, the spokeswoman said.
A former recruiter who worked for Kelly Services for three
months in 2020 said the agency warned people they could be let go at any time
but did not tell them about mandatory overtime.
The woman — speaking on condition of anonymity — said she
had not been directly involved in hiring paperwork but also knew that the
practice of making workers sign blank resignation papers before starting their
job was common in the industry.
Two former Amazon workers — including 37-year-old Rafael
Bobadilla — said they were required to sign blank resignation papers by the
recruitment agencies before starting work.
“I knew in theory it was illegal,” said Bobadilla, adding
that he signed the documents after finding Amazon work in 2019 with the
recruitment agency DCH because he needed the income.
The staffing agencies referenced by the former Amazon
workers — The Adecco Group, Kelly Services and DCH — did not directly address
individual accounts or the general findings presented by the Thomson Reuters
Foundation.
In response to emailed questions, a spokeswoman for the
Adecco Group said it did not disclose information on working conditions or
operations with business partners, but that it complied with labor law in all
countries including Mexico.
Kelly Services said it was committed to complying with local
laws where it operates, adding that it was policy to not comment on work with
specific clients.
DCH said it could not respond to questions because the
information provided was “sensitive and distorted”.
Subcontracting under scrutiny
Many of the interviewed workers said they saw the difficult
working conditions and long hours as a means to the end of potentially
obtaining a Amazon blue badge and staff status.
But only two of the 16 workers were made staff.
The hope of becoming a full-time employee kept 32-year-old
Nayeli Contreras going through eight months of night shifts.
“You can’t complain, you have to put up with it,” she said,
recalling one month when she had to work overtime for four consecutive weeks
beyond the limit permitted by law.
“You go in (to the warehouse) with the hope of a better
future, a better job, better conditions.”
But Contreras contracted COVID-19 in May last year, taking
four months off, and asked to do a less strenuous job than packing when she
returrned in September. Outsourcing agency DCH refused and ultimately pressured
her into resigning, she said.
“My last experience in Amazon was the most horrible thing
that could have happened to me,” she said.
Four other workers who contracted COVID-19 last year said
they were let go while off sick or soon after returning to work.
Amazon said all workers who contracted COVID-19 were given
two weeks of paid sick leave.
Of 10 workers let go by Amazon, most said they received no
severance pay, only wages owed. Several believed they were owed money, but
never received a copy of paperwork to dispute it.
Amazon said it complied with all laws and had strict
internal policies to ensure fair and consistent treatment of its workers,
adding that they were encouraged to raise any issues.
“We’re proud to contribute to the Mexican economy through
the creation of a wide variety of jobs with industry-competitive salaries with
comprehensive benefits, as well as the possibility to develop and make a career
at Amazon,” the spokeswoman said.
Amazon’s labor model in Mexico is part of a global trend as
corporations try to avoid a direct relationship with workers, said Chris Forde,
co-director of the Centre of Employment Relations Innovation and Change at
Britain’s Leeds University.
But outsourcing the majority of a workforce to a staffing
agency usually leads to a poor deal for the employees, he said.
“There’s a role for private agencies, but when they are
being used to provide the core workforce for a firm there needs to be big
questions asked about the motives,” Forde added.
But any labor reforms — whether imposed by the Mexican
government under the new law or led by the e-commerce giant itself — will come
too late for many workers.
“It was complicated just to be able to go to the bathroom,”
said Indira Larrinua, a 30-year-old former Amazon worker.
“How can there be companies that treat people this way ...
and no-one does anything about it?”
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