Amazon apologized on Friday for a tweet last week, rejecting claims by some Amazon workers that they had been worked so hard that they were forced to urinate in plastic bottles instead of going to the toilet.
Amazon News account tweet came in response to a post from Rep. Mark Pocan
Mark William Pocan: White House delays launch of budget plan Interception reporter: “There is no way” Amazon leadership did not know about the “routine” of drivers peeing in bottles President of the Union: Amazon’s “progressive workplace” claims are “outrageous” ”And“ deaf tone ”MORE (D-Wis.), Who commented on claims of “progressive employment” by Amazon chief consumer Dave Clark.
“Paying workers $ 15 / hour doesn’t make you a ‘progressive job’ when you unionize your bust and make workers urinate in water bottles,” Pocan wrote on Twitter.
Amazon retreated in its own tweet, writing, “You don’t really believe the bottle pee thing, do you?”
“If this were true, no one would work for us,” he added. “The truth is that we have over a million incredible employees around the world who are proud of what they do and have excellent salaries and health care from day one.”
1/2 You really don’t believe in bottle peeing, do you? If it were true, no one would work for us. The truth is that we have over a million incredible employees around the world who are proud of what they do and have excellent salaries and health care from day one.
– Amazon News (@amazonnews) March 25, 2021
Amazon apologized Friday for its response, writing in a blog post, „This was an own goal, we are dissatisfied with it and we owe an apology to the Pocan representative. ”
“First of all, the tweet was incorrect,” Amazon said. “It did not contemplate our large population of drivers and, instead, focused wrongly only on our performance centers. The company noted that these locations usually have “dozens of toilets, and employees can leave work at any time.”
“If an employee in a fulfillment center has a different experience, we encourage them to talk to their manager and we will work to fix the problem,” added the multinational technology giant.
Amazon also said that the tweet “did not receive adequate control”, acknowledging “the need to constantly stick to an extremely high precision bar, and this is especially so when we criticize the comments of others”.
The corporation acknowledged that Amazon drivers in particular “may have trouble finding toilets due to traffic or sometimes rural routes, and this was especially the case during Covid, when many public toilets were closed.”
“This is a long-term, industry-wide issue and is not specific to Amazon,” the post added before including a series of links to additional news reports about travel service drivers and delivery company workers who struggles to find accessible bathrooms while working.
Amazon went on to say, “Regardless of whether it’s industry-level, we’d like to address it. We don’t know how yet, but we will look for solutions. ”
Several Twitter users criticized Amazon for its response last week, including Pocan himself, who posted on Twitter, “And yes, I think your workers. You do not? “
Since 2018, some Amazon workers have filed claims that they were forced to urinate in bottles, as well as other allegations of mistreatment of workers, including that pregnant employees were asked to stay for hours and were repeatedly targeted for termination .