eRetailer's Working Conditions

(11/25/2013) The low-skill low-pay working conditions at many major retailers (like Walmart) in the US have been criticized for a long time. As eRetailers get bigger and more influential (like Amazon.com) in the market, the job opportunities brought by these eRetailers are not much better. In an Amazon.com's warehouse in UK, the hidden camera revealed the stressful working conditions. The workers working there as order pickers are like machine. When they fail to pick the right order the computer 'beeps' to warn their mistakes. The researcher says "The characteristics of this type of job, the evidence shows increased risk of mental illness and physical illness." (Another article about Amazon unfairly underpaying workers for their security checking time in Germany and in the US.) The sad thing is that eRetailers have to use people to do order picking because the robot machines are not sophisticated enough. If one day the machine can replace the workers, the eRetailers will definitely 'replace' workers by new machines to 'improve the working conditions. Isn't it ironic? The low skilled workers will lose their job then.

Below is a positive report about the complexity of Amazon's distribution center.