Nearly 90% Amazon India workers don’t get enough time to use bathroom
Nearly 90 per cent of Amazon India’s warehouse employees say they are not allowed sufficient time to use the restroom, according to a new survey that adds to a growing body of evidence of poor working conditions at the multinational corporation.
The results of the survey – conducted by the UNI Global Union, the Amazon India Workers Association and Jarrow Insights, a workers’ cooperative based in London – are detailed in an exhaustive report on the conditions that warehouse workers and drivers of the e-commerce giant in India have to daily endure.
The survey, conducted online between 2 February and 22 March this year, records the responses of 1,238 Amazon India warehouse workers and 600 delivery drivers, accounting for 2 to 5 per cent of the company’s warehouse and delivery workforce in the country.
It comes on the heels of a series of reports about hazardous working conditions at Amazon India’s warehouses.
The Independent last month reported an incident at the company’s Manesar warehouse in the northern Haryana state where workers were allegedly asked to make a pledge that they would not take any breaks, including to drink water or go to the bathroom, until they met their targets as they worked amid a brutal heatwave.
India’s labour ministry intervened after the national human rights commission asked for an investigation.
Responding to the ministry, Amazon India confirmed the incident but played it down as “unfortunate and isolated”.
The survey paints a contradictory picture.
Nearly 81 per cent of Amazon India warehouse employees say work targets set by the company are difficult or very difficult to achieve.
The targets are so demanding, in fact, they barely have time to rest, socialise and sometimes even eat.
“We aren’t even able to talk to anyone at work due to work pressure,” one warehouse worker tells The Independent, speaking anonymously for fear of reprisal.
The workers describe labouring for 10 hours straight on their feet in 35C heat, all for pay of Rs 10,000 (£94) a month.
A typical workday at the Manesar warehouse starts at 8.30am and ends at 6.30pm, with two 30-minute breaks in between. A worker in the inbound department unloads four trucks a day on average, each containing around 10,000 parcels. The number can go up when Amazon offers sales, according to The Indian Express.
Nearly 87 per cent of the company’s warehouse workers say they do not have enough time to use the toilet at work.
A worker who spends her day sorting products says managers come looking for employees they think take too long in the bathroom.
“The designated break rooms are small and unbearably hot, so many female workers end up resting in the bathrooms during their breaks,” she says, responding to the survey.
“But managers come searching for us if they feel we have stayed too long, pressuring us to return to work.”
Another worker says they are ticked off for being late if they take more than 10 minutes in the washroom.
Amazon claims the allegations are “factually incorrect and unsubstantiated”.
“We have not been given access to the material being quoted by The Independent,” a spokesperson for the company tells The Independent, referring to the survey.
“However, from the small amount of information that has been shared with us, we believe these claims are factually incorrect, unsubstantiated, and contradict what our own employees tell us directly. Moreover, the methodology to gather this data appears at best questionable and at worst deliberately designed to deliver on a specific narrative that certain groups are trying to claim as fact.”
An internal survey conducted by the company shows that 87 per cent of the workers at the Manesar facility are satisfied with their jobs, the spokesperson claims, “with as many as eight out of 10 recommending Amazon as a great place to work”.
“The reality is there’s nothing more important to us than the safety and wellbeing of our employees and associates, and we comply with all relevant laws and regulations. Our facilities are industry-leading and provide competitive pay, comfortable working conditions, and specially designed infrastructure to ensure a safe and healthy working environment for all,” the spokesperson says.
The report by the worker associations, however, notes that Amazon enforces productivity targets through a “combination of human managers and automated systems” which creates an uncompromising structure and penalises workers for human error.
Amazon workers have previously said the rigid nature of the targets and the attendance policy leads to many being blacklisted.
A blacklisted worker is essentially barred from ever working for Amazon again.
“They blacklist people on small issues, issue warning letters and terminate them from the company,” a worker says, responding to the survey. Another says workers “are placed in the identity blocklist” if they do not meet targets.
“If we miss a day due to health reasons or family emergencies, our IDs are blocked, impacting our livelihoods,” the Hindustan Times newspaper quoted an unnamed worker as saying.
The Amazon spokesperson claims the productivity targets are in keeping with industry practice.
“Like most companies, we have performance expectations for every employee and associate and we measure actual performance against those expectations. When setting those targets we take into account time in role, experience and the safety and wellbeing of our employees and associates,” the spokesperson says.
“We support people who are not performing to the levels expected with dedicated coaching to help them improve. We are confident that our targets are comfortably achievable by the trained associates. We also expand the associate pool whenever we find it necessary.”
The report by the worker associations, however, notes that 44.9 per cent of warehouse workers and 47.3 per cent of delivery drivers feel the working environment at Amazon is unsafe.
The drivers say they have to resort to unsafe driving to meet targets. “Sometimes, due to delivery targets, we have to drive fast. Then, whom should we ask to look out for our safety? There is no hearing of our grievances,” the report quotes a driver as saying.
“The company says that the weight of an order is upto 40kg but we are given upto 70kg,” says another. “While carrying it, we have to take care of our own safety and that of others which sometimes leads to situations that can become very difficult.”
The report records 46.4 per cent of Amazon India warehouse workers and 37.2 per cent of drivers complaining that their salaries are insufficient to meet basic needs.
The financial strain is exacerbated by stagnating pay amid rising inflation. “I have been with Amazon for eight years. There has been no pay raise in four years. Now the new joining associates and the old associates are on the same salary,” says a warehouse worker.
Amazon says that it provides “fair and competitive wages” and regularly reviews its wage structure against industry benchmarks, “ensuring adherence to all applicable wage laws across the states where we operate”.
“Our comprehensive wage package aims to incentivise and reward our associates through a combination of fixed pay, monthly attendance bonuses, and additional incentives, enabling them to enhance their earning potential,” the company spokesperson tells The Independent.
“In addition, all associates working at our buildings are entitled to Provident Fund and Employees’ State Insurance Corporate benefits, in accordance with applicable laws. All associates have medical, personal accident and term insurance, over and above the minimum statutory requirement of ESIC.”
Amazon has faced scrutiny for making workers labour in abysmal conditions in other countries as well, including the US and the UK.
A 2019 report found that workers at an Amazon warehouse in the UK were having to urinate in plastic bottles rather than go to the toilet during their shifts. Worker unions said they were taking action after more than 600 reports were made from Amazon warehouses to the health and safety executive in the past four years.
Australia charges soldier and her husband with spying for Russia
An Australian soldier and her husband have been charged with spying for Russia amid its escalating war in Ukraine.
Army private Kira Korolev, 40, and Igor Korolev, 62, were arrested from their Brisbane home on Thursday.
They were accused of collecting information about the Australian military to share with Moscow.
They were scheduled to appear before a Brisbane court on Friday, said federal police commissioner Reece Kershaw.
The couple migrated from Russia over a decade ago. Ms Korolev became an Australian citizen in 2016 and her husband in 2020.
They are the first Australians to be charged under the country’s sweeping espionage laws enacted in 2018. They face a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison if convicted.
Ms Korolev, who was an “information systems technician” in the army, undertook “non-declared” travel to Russia in 2023 while on leave, the police commissioner said.
The husband, a labourer, allegedly accessed Ms Korolev’s work account from their Brisbane home and sent requested classified information to her in Russia.
“We allege her husband would access requested material and would send to his wife in Russia. We allege they sought that information with the intention of providing it to Russian authorities,” Mr Kershaw said.
“Whether that information was handed over remains a key focus of our investigation.”
Mike Burgess, director general of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, said the couple were held after a “lengthy and complex investigation”.
If sufficient evidence is found that they indeed shared the classified information with Russia, the charges could be upgraded. In that case, the potential maximum prison sentence upon conviction would be 25 years or life.
Mr Burgess said spying was not a “quaint” notion and could have “catastrophic consequences”.
“Espionage is real. Multiple countries are seeking to steal Australia’s secrets,” he said.
Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese said he had been “briefed extensively” about the matter and that the charges showed law enforcement agencies were continually vigilant.
It was reported last year that Australia had quietly expelled a suspected Russian spy ring comprising embassy and consular staff.
Moscow last year accused Australia of “Russophobic hysteria” for cancelling the lease on land where it wanted to build a new embassy.
The Australian government judged the site to be a security risk because it was close to parliament.
Man proposes to girlfriend through her favourite crossword
A filmmaker from Pune in the western Indian state of Maharashtra has proposed to his girlfriend using the crossword of The Indian Express newspaper.
The man, who chose to stay anonymous, got in touch with the daily’s puzzle editor to place the message “Marry Me” in last Thursday’s crossword, with the clue reading, “Words with a nice ring to them?”
He also requested the word “champa,” Hindi for the Frangipani flower, which is of significance to the couple.
“I wanted the proposal to have something that’s part of our everyday life. I also wanted it to be intimate, rather than in a public space. And since IE’s crossword is something we have done together many times, it would be an unexpected surprise,” he told the newspaper.
The woman described being “in shock throughout”.
The couple, who are in a long-distance relationship, did the crossword regularly together over Whatsapp which gave the man the idea to incorporate it in his proposal.
Anant Goenka, executive director of the newspaper, shared the story on his social media, writing: “The girlfriend, a puzzle-loving historian, could not go a day without doing the Express crossword with her morning chai. The boyfriend emails the Express puzzles team enlisting our help to have ‘marry me’ in our mini crossword.”
The day of the proposal, 4 July, the man recalled getting anxious as his girlfriend struggled with a few of the clues.
“When she clicked on 7-Across, the pivotal clue, the answer did not strike her. So she moved on. Meanwhile, I kept fidgeting with the ring in my pocket. Seven minutes later, with more letters filled in, Juhi finally had her eureka moment,” he said.
As soon as she said the words “Marry me” out loud, he pulled the ring out and proposed.
“The moment she said it, everything started moving very fast. I pulled the ring out of my pocket and went down on one knee. Of course, she said yes!”
The crossword enthusiasts spent the next few minutes solving the rest of the crossword together, and called it one of their “slowest attempts”, clocking in at 12 minutes and 57 seconds.
The Internet reacted very happily to the sweet story, with several people praising the daily and the puzzles editor for going along with the idea and many joking this would induce them to start reading the newspaper and solve the crossword as well.
“What an absolutely endearing tale! Finding love between the lines, literally!” said one user on X.
China reacts after Nato says it is ‘decisive enabler’ of Ukraine war
China will never accept the “unfounded accusations” of Nato that Beijing is a “decisive enabler” of Russia’s war against Ukraine, foreign minister Wang Yi said.
Nato, a military alliance of 32 North American and European countries, issued a declaration after a three-day summit in Washington on the 75th anniversary of the bloc’s formation.
With its “no-limits partnership” with Russia and its “large-scale support for its defence industrial base” China has become a war enabler, the communique said. The Nato members urged China to “cease all material and political support to Russia’s war effort”.
The Nato declaration on Wednesday came as the alliance, which has historically focused on security in Europe and North America, has also seen engagement from US allies in Asia, including Japan, South Korea and New Zealand even as they are not a part of the military alliance.
The leaders of the three countries joined the summit for the third year in a row as the war in Ukraine pitted the West against Russia and its friends and bolstered the argument for closer cooperation between the US, Europe and their Asian allies.
In a phone call with the foreign minister of the Netherlands, Caspar Veldkamp, Mr Wang said: “China absolutely does not accept the groundless accusations made at the recent summit in Washington against China”.
“Nato should stay within its bounds, and refrain from interfering in Asia-Pacific affairs or China’s internal affairs, and from challenging China’s legitimate rights and interests,” Mr Wang said, according to Chinese state media.
He said Bejing is “willing to maintain contact with Nato on the basis of equality and engage in exchanges on the basis of mutual respect”.
On Thursday, the Chinese foreign ministry hit out at Nato’s “belligerent rhetoric”, urging it to “stop interfering in China’s internal politics and smearing China’s image and not create chaos in the Asia-Pacific after creating turmoil in Europe”.
“Nato agitating about China’s responsibility on the Ukraine issue is unreasonable and has sinister motives,” spokesperson Lin Jian said at a daily briefing, maintaining that China has a fair and objective stance on the Ukraine issue.
He said Nato’s “so-called security” is at the cost of the security of other countries. China has backed Russia’s contention that Nato expansion posed a threat to Russia.
In a separate statement from its mission to the European Union, China condemned the Nato statement as “filled with Cold War mentality and belligerent rhetoric” and it was filled with “obvious lies and smears”.
“China is not the creator to the Ukraine crisis. China’s position on Ukraine is open and aboveboard. We aim to promote peace talks and seek political settlement,” it said.
China which has taken a neutral stance in the war has been accused of aiding the war by sending dual-use goods to Moscow. Beijing has denied supplying weapons.
The Chinese sidealso reiterated that it had never provided weapons in conflict and has strict controls over dual-use weapons, calling trade ties with Russia “normal”.
China has also become Russia’s top trade partner, surpassing the European Union, ramping up energy trade with Beijing, throwing a crucial security net to its economy under sanctions.
“The Asia-Pacific region is a place for peaceful development, not a wrestling ground for geopolitical competition … NATO should not become the disrupter of peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific,” Beijing’s EU mission said in the statement.
China, which has positioned itself as a mediator for a peaceful resolution in the war, said its “core position on the Ukraine issue is to promote peace talks and political settlement”.
It said that the middle path it would been seeking “has been widely recognized and appreciated by the international community”.
Danny Russel, a former assistant secretary of state for Asia, said the new wording of the statement by Nato was “an extraordinary step,” particularly because it included it warning that Beijing continues to pose “systemic challenges” to European interests and security in the same communiqué.
“It is a mark of how badly Beijing’s attempt to straddle Russia and Western Europe has failed and how hollow its claim of neutrality rings,” Mr Russel said.
“China’s attempts at divide-and-conquer have instead produced remarkable solidarity between key nations of the Euro-Atlantic and the Asia-Pacific regions.”
Israeli military tells all residents of Gaza City to evacuate
The Israeli military has ordered all Palestinians in Gaza City to leave the besieged territory as heavy bombardment continued to jolt the region ahead of ceasefire talks.
The army on Wednesday dropped thousands of leaflets over the territory ordering “everyone in Gaza City“, which was home to more than half a million people before the war, to leave for the south. It set out escape routes and warned that the city would “remain a dangerous combat zone”.
Israel claimed the aim behind a revived offensive in Gaza was to seek out Hamas fighters who were allegedly regrouping in parts of the Strip. Wednesday’s warning follows three partial evacuation orders from Israel as the troops along with tanks stormed into the city this week.
Israel’s war in Gaza has already displaced most of the Strip’s 2.3 million people, with “nowhere safe” for them to escape.
The heavy strikes throughout Gaza in recent days, which have killed dozens of people, could be aimed at increasing pressure on Hamas during negotiations for a ceasefire, according to experts. The US, Egyptian and Qatari mediators are meeting with Israeli officials in Qatar for talks trying to push through a deal.
A White House national security spokesperson said the US was “cautiously optimistic that things are moving in a good direction”. “There are still gaps remaining between the two sides. We believe those gaps can be narrowed,” John Kirby told CNN.
Meanwhile, there appears to be no mass exodus southwards to central Gaza as people feared they could be shot or detained.
Maha Mahfouz, a mother of two, said she and five other families will head to Jabaliya refugee camp, which is north of Gaza City. “We will stay in the north to be close to our homes,” she told the Associated Press.
The main UN agency supporting Palestinians in Gaza has said around 200,000 Palestinians remain in the north of the territory.
Israeli tanks deepened their incursion into some districts including Shejaia, Sabra and Tel Al-Hawa, where residents reported the previous day some of the most fierce fighting since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas.
Footage circulated on social media on Tuesday showed families packed onto donkey carts and in the backs of trucks piled with mattresses and other belongings racing through the city’s streets to flee areas under Israeli evacuation orders.
“Gaza City is being wiped out, this is what is happening. Israel is forcing us to leave homes under fire,” Um Tamer, a mother of seven, told Reuters via a chat app.
Multiple Israeli airstrikes on Wednesday killed 20 Palestinians in central Gaza, including six children and three women, some of them inside a purported “safe zone” declared by the Israeli military.
Israel’s war in Gaza in retaliation against the 7 October Hamas attack has killed more than 38,000 Palestinians. The war began after Hamas, in a surprise attack, stormed into southern Israel and killed some 1,200 people – mostly civilians – and abducted about 250 others.
Israeli restrictions, fighting and the breakdown of law and order have limited humanitarian aid efforts, causing widespread hunger and sparking fears of famine. The UN has ordered Israel to take steps to protect Palestinians as it examines genocide allegations against Israel’s top politicians. Israel, however, has denied charges.
11 killed after pickup truck collides with bus in northern Philippines
At least 11 people were killed after a pickup truck collided with a bus in northern Philippines on Thursday morning, police said. Six passengers were injured.
The small Toyota Hilux truck hit the side of the bus, lost control and crashed into a roadside food stall in the town of Abulug, police chief Major Antonio Palattao said. The town lies is 600km north of the capital Manila.
Both the drivers and food stall owner were injured.
The accident took place shortly after midnight and police said that the pickup driver’s unfamiliarity with the terrain was the likely reason.
“The driver of the Toyota Hilux is not well-oriented with the area and was not aware that they were already approaching a highway,” police captain Jun-jun Torio told AFP. “Naturally, you slow down when approaching one.”
Passengers of the pickup truck were members of the same family.
Mr Palattao said police were investigating to determine who was responsible for the accident.
The Philippines has seen several fatal road accidents recently due to weak enforcement of traffic laws, dilapidated vehicles and dangerous road conditions, including inadequate safety signs and barriers on mountainous roads and in remote provinces.
At least 17 people were killed in March when their passenger van was hit by a cargo truck and burst into flames in the southern Philippines.
The 10-wheel truck, carrying sand and gravel, was negotiating a downhill road when its brakes malfunctioned, causing it to slam into the van, police said.
UAE jails 43 activists for life after finding them guilty of terrorism
The Abu Dhabi Federal Court of Appeal in the UAE sentenced 43 people to life in prison in a mass trial on Wednesday.
The trial was criticised by human rights groups who said it targeted political dissidents and activists, linking them to Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist movement proscribed as a terrorist organisation by the UAE.
The defendants were sentenced for “creating, establishing and managing the Justice and Dignity Committee” for the purpose of committing terrorist acts in the country, state news agency WAM reported.
The court said they “have worked to create and replicate violent events in the country, similar to what has occurred in other Arab states — including protests and clashes between the security forces and protesting crowds — that led to deaths and injuries and to the destruction of facilities, as well as the consequent spread of panic and terror among people”.
The court, however, acquitted 24 other defendants.
Those sentenced included prominent academic Nasser bin Ghaith and activist Ahmed Mansoor.
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International condemned the trial for alleged due process violations and called for the immediate release of the defendants.
“These over-the-top long sentences make a mockery of justice and are another nail in the coffin for the UAE’s nascent civil society,” Joey Shea, a researcher focusing on the UAE for Human Rights Watch told news agency Associated Press.
“The UAE has dragged scores of its most dedicated human rights defenders and civil society members through a shamelessly unfair trial riddled with due process violations and torture allegations.”
Amnesty International’s UAE researcher Devin Kenney said in a statement that the Gulf nation “must urgently revoke this unlawful verdict and immediately release the defendants”.
“The trial has been a shameless parody of justice and violated multiple fundamental principles of law, including the principle that you cannot try the same person twice for the same crime, and the principle that you cannot punish people retroactively under laws that didn’t exist at the time of the alleged offence,” he said. “Trying 84 Emiratis at once, including 26 prisoners of conscience and well-known human rights defenders, is a scarcely disguised exercise in punishing dissenters that has been further marred by a myriad of fair trial violations, the most serious of which is uninvestigated allegations of torture and other ill-treatment.”
Khalid Ibrahim of the Gulf Center for Human Rights told the BBC it was “a real tragedy that so many activists and human rights defenders will remain in prison for decades, deprived of watching their children grow up, for no other reason than calling for a better future for Emiratis”.