Amazon Will Roll Back Warehouse Pay Increases in June

E-commerce giant Amazon will reportedly stop paying its warehouse workers an extra $2 per hour at the end of this month. One Amazon employee called the move “disgraceful,” claiming, “It just shows how very little regard Amazon has for its overworked employees.”

Business Insider reports that e-commerce giant Amazon plans to stop paying warehouse workers an extra $2 per hour at the end of the month after raising workers wages beginning in March to compensate them for coming into work during the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic.

Dave Clark, Amazon’s senior vice president of worldwide operations told Recode: “We’re going to do one more extension on it and push it out until the end of the month.” The $2 raise has been in effect since mid-March alongside increased overtime pay and was originally planned to run until the end of April but was extended by the company.

One Amazon warehouse worker told Business Insider: “I feel like it’s too soon,” they added, “I had to find this out through news outlets. I do understand the economy is reopening, but the demand has not decreased and if anyone expects things to go back to normal anytime soon, it would be unrealistic. I believe that it should be extended into the month of June, so that they can have a better grasp of our new normal as we watch the economy recover.”

Another warehouse employee referred to the decision as “disgraceful,” stating: “Staff put themselves at risk every day. Also with the harsh regime and difficult targets the workers more than deserve the pay rise permanently. It just shows how very little regard Amazon has for its overworked employees.”

Amazon also cut a policy that allowed workers to take unlimited amounts of unpaid time off in order to allow workers to stay home if they felt unsafe coming to work during the pandemic. One Amazon employee told the Guardian: “Now they’re forcing people to go to work because if you run out of unpaid time off, that’s it, you’re fired.”

Amazon told Business Insider that its pay incentives for employees since the beginning of the pandemic have reached nearly $800 million. The firm also expects to spend $4 billion on increased wages, personal protective equipment, and increased cleaning of its facilities.

Christy Hoffman, the general secretary for the internal workers’ union UNI Global Union commented on Amazon’s decision to cut the $2 pay increase to Business Insider, stating: “Amazon’s announcement to end hazard pay shows yet again that the tech giant won’t act in the best interest of workers unless pushed.

“It is the same attitude that has already motivated workers to strike, take the company to court and demand respect on the job. As the deadly coronavirus outbreak continues, Amazon should put workers first and pay a premium for their labor.”