The 29th of November, or ‘Black Friday’, was international ‘Make Amazon Pay Day’ where workers took action against the company across the world.
The SDA Queensland Branch along with the Transport Workers’ Union assembled outside Amazon’s Distribution Centre in Lytton to protest their abysmal safety record, before entering the site to carry out surveying of Amazon staff.
Black Friday is one of the busiest shopping days of the year and retail, transport and distribution centre workers are put under extreme pressure to work as fast as they can, especially in multinational companies like Amazon, who took home $30 billion in profits last year.
Amazon has had a poor health and safety record in its Distribution Centres with its employees experiencing high workloads and high stress levels.
Our member survey was designed to determine whether health and safety is a priority in their biggest Queensland DC.
Amazon is a very successful business, but it is still one that relies on the hard work of people, and those people deserve to work in an environment and at a pace that is safe.
In Australia, we have decent workplace health and safety laws. We don’t need Amazon or any other employer importing lower safety standards from United States or elsewhere.
We will continue to visit the Amazon DC to keep an eye on their heath and safety practices and follow up and fix any issues identified by the survey.