The news that Amazon employees had resorted to camping out in woods near their workplace has sparked a storm on social media.
Donald Porter from Liverpool, summed up many peoples’ thoughts on Facebook with the question: “Is this really 21st Century Britain?”
Lorna Partridge, from Cairneyhill said one of the workers had been camping for some time. “It is his choice as he did not want to travel every day,” she posted on Facebook. “He was working 40 hours a week but would do any overtime that was going.
“Now that we have 50 hours compulsory, he will work 60. Anyway, it is nothing to do with Amazon. And by the way, he goes to Amazon prior to every shift to have a shower. He needs to tidy up his site as it is full of rubbish.”
Elsewhere, there was a mixed response with many people sticking up for Amazon and its track record.
Londoner “Annabelle87” posted: “It’s actually quite popular to sleep in a caravan or a tent near your place of work, it’s called saving money on rent etc.
“I know several well paid workers who work a long way from home in the UK and stay in a caravan. They love saving money and can you blame them?”
Poster “Sully” added: “Why buy a tent when they could have used one of Amazon’s massively over-sized cardboard boxes?”
Another reader “English George” wrote: “I spent four years working 90 hours per week. Granted, it was tough, but 60 hours really isn’t that bad. I know some folk who have worked 70 hours per week for 40 years.”
While there was some concern about the mess left at the campsite, London reader “ufcknockout101” responded: “The real point is people cannot complain about bad working conditions. They should, but robots can do this job 24/7 so we have a real problem ahead. Either put up with low pay or the companies will use robots.”
