London (Parliament Politics Magazine) – The online retail business Amazon has announced a pay upgrade worth about 10% for tens of thousands of UK workers, after beating a bid by the GMB trade union for bargaining rights over pay and conditions.
Amazon expressed the increase would lift minimum wage rates by 9.8% to between £13.50 and £14.50 an hour, depending on location. Staff with at least three years of service will obtain a minimum of between £13.75 and £14.75 an hour. The pay grade will apply to thousands of Amazon teams from 29 September, including delivery drivers and those operating in the retailer’s UK fulfilment centres.
How will Amazon’s pay increase impact UK worker conditions?
The company, which has witnessed UK workers stage a series of strikes, stated it had invested £550m in increasing employees’ pay since 2022, and added that staff obtained benefits such as subsidised meals and discounts. A spokesperson stated: “That’s why we are proud to announce that we are increasing our minimum starting pay for all frontline employees to the equivalent of more than £28,000 a year and we continue to offer industry-leading benefits from day one.”
Is Amazon’s pay raise enough to address union demands?
Rachel Fagan, a GMB organiser, stated: “This is too little, too belatedly from Amazon bosses who have been pushed to act by worker’s industrial action. Amazon’s stature is in the gutter over its treatment of its employees and now company bosses are attempting to plaster over the facts. Unsafe working situations, low pay and excessive surveillance mess the lives of Amazon workers every single day.”
What role did union pressure play in Amazon’s pay decision?
The GMB barely lost a statutory ballot at Amazon’s warehouse on the outskirts of Coventry in July, which would have resulted in formal distinction for the union. In the hard-fought vote, 50.5% of workers rejected the idea.
Employees in Coventry have held a series of protests over the past 18 months, mandating a ÂŁ15-an-hour minimum pay and the right to negotiate directly with management. They were joined on the picket line last November by trade unionists from Europe and the US, who have presented similar issues in their home countries.
How are Amazon’s global anti-union policies affecting UK workers?
Amazon has a global policy of refusing to collaborate with unions, claiming that it prefers to have a direct connection with staff. The retail-to-cloud-services group was established by Jeff Bezos in his garage in 1994 and is now worth almost $2tn.
Some attendants inside the Coventry warehouse blamed Amazon for union-busting tactics – including showing QR codes, which when scanned generated an email to GMB’s membership department withdrawing a worker’s membership. The Labour government has pledged to make it easier for trade unions to succeed in recognition, as part of a package of measures sought to boost the bargaining power of the UK’s workforce.