Amazon: The Truth Behind the Click Panorama

Tonight on Panorama we go behind the click to expose what happens when

you buy from the world's biggest online retailer. The level of

pressure on people is just incredible. I have never seen

anything like it. Undercover at Amazon. The job that pushes workers

to the limit. A job where every second counts. And

workers racing a computerised clock. Even when the lights don't work. It

is impossible to try and see in the dark. A workplace that could damage

your health. The characteristics of this type of job increase the risks

of mental and physical illness. The big Christmas shop is changing.

There has been a revolution in the way we buy. Every year we do more

and more shopping online. Shopping is now something that we can do on

our own, on our laptops and in our homes. The physical side is done by

other people. We don't see that anymore. And one company has led the

way, the biggest online retailer on the planet. How much of your

Christmas shopping will be done on Amazon? Lots. Probably about 40%. I

like it because it is quick and easy to do. It is easy. Trustworthy. It

is exciting having it come to your doorstep as well. Amazon used to

sell only books but now you can buy virtually anything. Cheap and

efficient, from click to your door. Who wouldn't want that? Amazon is an

amazing company from our perspective because despite the fact it turned

over $61 billion of revenue last year, it is still continuing to grow

out of revenue last year, it is still continuing to grow at the

nominal rate. There seems because it has a strong business model and a

strong customer base. This is where your click becomes real. Most of

what you choose on the site is stored in a series of warehouses. So

when you buy on Amazon, it is just one click. But that click ends up

here, at one of the enormous distribution centres. And inside,

someone has to go and find the thing you have just bought. There are

eight of these warehouses across the UK. They cover nearly 5 million

square feet. At this time of year, Amazon employs around 20,000 people.

But the unions have been complaining about the working conditions. The

level of pressure on people is just incredible. I have never seen

anything like it. Independently we spoke to more than 30 former

workers. A few were positive but would not be filmed. Most were

critical. This job does not compare to any other job that I have done,

to be honest. It is the most depressing place I have ever been

to. A disgusting place to work. Really quiet, eerie, like a funeral

most of the time. Really dark. People in lines and lines. The only

way I would go back to Amazon is if I had nothing left. Amazon says it

is proud of providing a safe and positive workplace and that these

descriptions don't reflect the views of the vast majority of its

employees. We want to find out what it is like inside by going

undercover. So we took advice. Chris used to work as a security guard for

Amazon. He has asked us to hide his face and disguise his voice. He says

getting a hidden camera inside will be hard. To prevent theft, there is

CCTV, and workers have to regularly walk through their S -- walk-through

airport style security. Good luck. I doubt that you will get out with any

footage. I think it will be confiscated quite quickly. Good luck

with that. This is the man who is going to try to check out Amazon.

Adam Littler is a 23-year-old graduate. He keeps himself fit and

he has done manual work before. When I have worked in these factories and

warehouses doing these manual jobs, I have found that they are

physically demanding, but it has never been any more than I expected.

It has not been an issue. He has got a job at Amazon through an agency.

We think we have found a way to smuggle our secret camera past

security. We are in. This is the Swansea warehouse. 800,000 square

feet of storage. His job is as a pickup. He collect is what we buy

from the miles of shelving. And this bleak controls his working life. --

this beep. The handset tells him what to collect and put on his

trolley and gives him a set number of seconds to find each product.

This green counts him down. -- the screen. For the first few months,

you worked on the day shift and we gave him a wristband that measures

his mileage. I have been measuring my walking using the wristband and I

have walked just short of six miles today. Later Adam gets put on the

night shift. This means his pay goes up from ?6.50 to ?8.25 per hour. It

is four shifts a week, each ten and a half hours long with one hour's

break. The trolley is heavy and he is really feeling the strain. Items

are stored on four floors. The cart travels in a lift. Adam have to take

the stairs. And on the night shift, his mileage is increasing. Adam is

finding it exhausting. I managed to walk, or hobbled, nearly 11 miles.

Just short of 11 miles last night. I am absolutely shattered. My feet

other thing that is bothering me the most, to be honest. Today was a bit

of a struggle, really, because I have another blister or two on my

feet. Amazon says that new recruits are warned that some jobs are

physically demanding. They say that some workers seek these positions

because they enjoy the active nature of the work. There are other issues

inside. The lights are activated by motion sensors. They don't always

work. It means that Adam is sometimes working in the dark.

14 seconds to try and see in the dark. And even in the dark, his

scanner is still counting down the seconds.

It happens regularly but Amazon told us there are thousands of lights in

their centres and occasionally faults developed, which they work

quickly to fix. I met up with Adam after a shift. He says he is

exhausted because the work is nonstop. People at home might think

this is a good system. He has worked every minute of his shift. Obviously

you expect to work hard and put the effort in. It is just the added

pressure. There is a lot of walking involved. The cart gets very heavy.

It is quite gruelling on the body, really. So Adam is finding the ten

and a half hour night shifts hard. The experts we consulted said he

should not even be doing them. If the work involves heavy physical or

mental strain, that might work should not work more than eight

hours in any 24 hour period. -- the night worker. We have to protect the

interests of the employees. That could put Amazon in breach of the

working time regulations, but Amazon told us this was lawful. They sought

legal advice to make sure the shifts comply with all relevant legal

requirements. Just down the road in Cardiff, Paul Came runs a very

different kind of warehouse. He sells books wholesale, online and

through his own shops. The staff here have a similar job to Adam. And

Paul have to get the best from them. In a small business everybody pulls

together. If they are falling behind because we are busy, they just shout

for help. I would not work them into the ground. This business is

struggling and that is partly due to the rise of Amazon. Looking at the

new Alex Ferguson biography, I think it has been the fastest selling

nonfiction hardback ever. He is now trying to sell his books on Amazon.

Amazon allows other retailers to sell through their website, giving

them greater exposure, but they have to pay 15% commission, and Paul says

that he cannot match Amazon's prices. Amazon on the top selling at

?12. And how far down are we? Quite away. 13, 14, 15, 16, at ?15.42. If

you are ?3 more expensive than Amazon at the top of the list, how

many will you sell? I might not sell any. Amazon has undoubtedly changed

the industry. They have lowered prices and they are trusted by

millions of shoppers. It is grim for you but isn't it good for consumers?

They can get much cheaper books. A lot are probably thinking it is good

because it has pushed the price down. The British taxpayer has

helped Amazon build its business in the UK. The Scottish Government

awarded Amazon a grant of ?6.8 million in return for the promise of

1700 jobs. And the Welsh Government awarded Amazon a grant of ?8.8

million towards the warehouse where Adam has been working. And that is

not all. This road shows how much effort was made to get Amazon to

come to South Wales. When Amazon were considering this site, they

said they would need a road. And the Welsh Assembly Government said,

fine, we will build you one. And ?4.9 million later, trucks are on

the road which is called Ffordd Amazon in Welsh, which for the rest

of us is Amazon Way. The Welsh Assembly says the investment was

worthwhile because it will create 1200 jobs in Swansea. Amazon told us

it has invested more than ?1 billion and created 5000 permanent jobs

across the UK. Back in the warehouse, Adam is struggling. His

target is to pick 110 items per hour, nearly two per minute. His

scanner shows him how he is getting on.

He is working hard but he rarely reaches his target.

I've never done a job like this before.

Every time Adam scans a wrong item, the handset lets him know. It

happens regularly. The beeping is starting to get under his skin. Last

night I had trouble falling asleep because the beeping sounds that the

scanners make, erm, were, were just going, going off in my head. The

scanner allows managers to see how fast Adam has been picking over the

last few weeks. Adam's not the only worker who seems

to be struggling to meet targets. Amazon says productivity targets are

set objectively based on previous performance levels achieved by the

workforce. Most people in the warehouse seem to have targets -

like this shelf-stacker. For those ten hours, we are

machines, we are robots, we plug our scanner to... We're holding it, but

we might as well be plugging it into ourselves. We don't think for

ourselves, maybe they don't trust us to think for ourselves as human

beings, I don't know. Hitting targets matters - if you

miss them you can face disciplinary action Scores - they're a bit down.

He was picking an item on average every 37 seconds - Amazon want him

to be four seconds quicker. On another shift, Adam asks a

different manager what will happen if he doesn't speed up.

Of course, many companies have performance targets and Amazon says

only two of its 5,000 permanent employees have been sacked for poor

productivity this year. But Amazon wouldn't tell us how many temporary

workers like Adam were affected. He has found it a tough job with tough

targets, but could it also be bad for Adam's health? Professor Michael

Marmot is an expert on stress at work.

I'll pick the item, scan it and then it'll start counting down on the

screen to get to the next location and pick the item as well. Counting

down and giving you the timings? Yeah. So you are literally against

the clock for each stage of the journey? It's telling you how long

you have to get to the next location and pack the item? Yeah, from...

From each one. So, it counts down and you scan to pick, pick an item,

and it resets. So what does Professor Marmot think of what he's

seen? What we know about work environments

from a variety of studies around the world in different sort of jobs

suggest that various dimensions of the work environment are bad for

health. And it's almost as if what I've just heard has taken them all.

All of them, and distilled them into a short sharp shock, and said, "Here

you are, here's all the bad stuff all at once."

Professor Marmot has no doubt that working like this can be bad for

your health. A job where you have little control but are under

pressure can be a dangerous combination. The characteristics of

this type of job, the evidence shows increased risk of mental illness and

physical illness. Amazon says staff safety is its

"number one priority" and official safety inspections have not raised

concerns. An independent expert appointed by Amazon said the job

isn't unusual and "does not increase the risk of mental and physical

illness". But any kind of sickness at Amazon can come at a price. The

company operate a disciplinary system based on points. Adam was

told if he got three points he'd be fired. A day off for illness earns

you one point - even going home sick gets you half a point. It was a

Friday afternoon, I rang in sick and I got a point straightaway for it. I

had to go home about half-way through the shift because I'd been

throwing up, and I got half a point for that. I threw my back out. I

then received a point for that sickness. Once you build up three

points you are out of a job. If... Once you hit one point, it's a

warning, two points it's a final warning and your third point is, get

out the door. Amazon say only 11 of its permanent

employees have been dismissed for attendance this year, and the system

they use is fair and predictable. Back in the warehouse, Adam is

picking up disciplinary points. Being late costs half a point - and

Adam has been late twice. But then he is told there's another late he

didn't know about. So, for being two minutes late, he's

got another half a point. It's getting more serious, he has

one-and-a-half points. The points will be cleared from his

record after three months. But even if Adam doesn't reach three points,

he might not keep his job. Amazon is taking on 15,000 temporary workers

for Christmas. Adam's told after the holidays, those with the worst

records will go. It's organisational injustice. It's

not, my boss is a rotter and treats me badly and he's unfair to me. It's

not that. It's the sense that, the way that the organisation is

structured is unjust and there is injustice.

Amazon strongly denies exploiting its workers or dismissing them

without good reason. It says it has created 2,300 new "permanent

positions" but "simply cannot retain 15,000 seasonal workers".

Local book trader Paul Came is still struggling to compete. Today, he's

closing his shop in Monmouth. It's the seventh he has closed in the

last five years. This shop will close in the next 30 minutes.

Tonight, we will stock take the shop for the closing down stock, then

tomorrow I'll have a couple of my lads will be up and we'll pack

everything away. So, yeah, difficult, emotional - not something

you want to go through as often as I've had to over the past five

years. I really, really enjoyed it. It's been lovely. Thanks for all

support. You know we've tried. So yes, it's a sad day, but thanks

again for everything. All good things come to an end. Ah!

Difficult. Back in the warehouse, Adam has told

his managers about his blisters - he's been moved to a picking job

that involved less walking. But it's still more than six miles a night.

On this job, he works a smaller area but has higher targets. He's hitting

them some of the time. But he always tires as his shift

wears on. His pick rate falls and the managers can see it.

On another shift, Adam feels unwell so has to go home. That's another

disciplinary offence and another half a point. So, when he comes in

for his next shift, he's up to two points - that means a final warning.

Adam is now back on the tougher shifts. He's on two points and has a

final warning. We think he's seen enough, and he resigns. For Adam -

life behind the click was hard. Like a lot of people, I'm used to

Amazon as a customer, and it's convenient and bright. So I sort of

thought if I was going to go and work for the company, it would sort

of be a happy, positive place. But it seems to be the complete

opposite, to be honest. You know, it's not - not like any other job

that I've done before. Paul Came, the Cardiff book trader,

is trying to fight back. Tonight is the launch party. Paul has his own

website. Long overdue, a dream of my son's. If you'd like to, Warren, I

think we should click it together just to launch it and go live. We

will be able to be more competitive with prices, that is, the 15% that

we're paying Amazon, we can use to discount books a bit more. I did say

at the beginning, if you can't beat them, join them.

There's no doubt Amazon has forced the competition to change. They've

told us they rely on the good judgment of thousands of

employees... What's certainly true is that from

click to delivery, they're cheap and efficient - but does that efficiency

come at a price for workers? This is happening in our back yard, this is

happening in this country. And being seduced by getting a couple of

pounds off a product, you've got to ask yourself what price are we

paying. Now if you say to me, yeah, but they're always going to be

menial jobs. Well, of course, but we can make them better or worse. And

it seems to me the demands of efficiency at the cost of

individuals' health and wellbeing - it's got to be balanced.

Millions of us will be buying presents on Amazon over the next

couple of weeks. The Amazon click has made our Christmas easier and

given us more time - but the fetching and carrying hasn't gone

away. It's just being done by someone else - working hard and up

against the clock. Next week - we investigate the UK

aid that should be used to save lives that's gone astray.