Workers in Amazon warehouse get no toilet, water breaks till targets met: ‘Women worst affected’

Seniors check washrooms to check if workers are not wasting time during shift hours, a 24-year-old who works five days a week, ten hours a day and earns ₹10,088 a month at Amazon India’s five warehouses located in Haryana’s Manesar said. As per a report in Indian Express, the worker said, “Even if we work without any breaks, including the lunch and tea breaks that are 30 minutes each, we can’t unload more than four trucks a day. Just two days ago, we took a pledge that we would forgo water and washroom breaks to improve performance and attain the target."

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Workers alleged that they are directed to take oaths they won't take toilet or water breaks until their target of unloading packages is completed.

An Amazon India spokesperson responded to the allegations saying, “We’re investigating these claims, but to be clear, we’d never make these kinds of requests on our employees as part of standard business practice. If we discovered an incident such as the one that’s been alleged, we’d immediately put a stop to it and ensure the manager involved was re-trained on our expectations of team support, health, and safety. We’ll continue to investigate.”

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Amazon has faced such allegations abroad before as well as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in the US had in 2022 and 2023 flagged the company's unsafe working conditions and failure to properly report injuries at six warehouses.

The worker also alleged that women are the worst affected as “the trucks are hot from being parked outside, and when they unload articles, they get exhausted quickly.”

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A woman working at the warehouse said there is no restroom on the premises, adding, “If we are unwell, the only option is to go to the washroom or locker room. There is a sick room with a bed, but workers are asked to leave after 10 minutes. I stand for nine hours a day, and am supposed to go through 60 small products or 40 medium-sized products every hour.”

The Amazon spokesperson said, “All our buildings have heat index monitoring devices and we constantly monitor changes in temperature, especially during summer months. Employees are free to take informal breaks throughout their shifts to use the restroom, get water, or talk to a manager or HR."