- Wednesday, December 04, 2024
The e-commerce giant has been accused of not complying with labour laws and not providing adequate safety measures to its workers at its warehouse
By: shajil kumar
AMAZON is facing legal proceedings for alleged breach of labour laws, following a government inspection at its warehouse located at Manesar, near New Delhi, Al Jazeera reports.
The e-commerce giant has been accused of not complying with labour laws and not providing adequate safety measures at its warehouse.
That labour ministry inspection was carried out following reports of an incident in May, where Amazon workers were told to take verbal pledges not to take breaks, including for drinking water or using the toilet, until they met their targets for the day.
Amazon claims it was an ‘isolated incident’ and the manager had called for such a pledge as a “motivational exercise”.
In a letter to the government, Amazon stated that disciplinary action had been taken against the manager. Amazon also told Al Jazeera that this manager no longer works for them.
The labour ministry report stated that Amazon was not providing workers with the required safety gear.
Workers were found wearing loose clothing near moving machinery, which could prove dangerous if the clothes get entangled in the machine.
The warehouse was not maintaining proper records as required by law, and employees were not provided employment identity cards.
The Haryana government took Amazon to a court in nearby Gurugram in June, citing labour inspection report as evidence.
The judge had in June summoned Amazon to be present on October 28, but now the case has been adjourned to December 10.
Amazon employs more than 100,000 people in India.
They include blue-collar workers and delivery drivers in its 60 warehouses across India, executives managing sales and marketing, and AI specialists working on Amazon’s cloud computing firm, Amazon Web Services.
