Amazon suffers PR fiasco as leaked documents show awareness of workers urinating in bottles

Amazon Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) is caught in the middle of a public relations firestorm after leaked internal documents revealed the company was aware of delivery workers urinating in bottles due to being unable to access toilets, despite having previously denied such events. Overnight on Thursday, documents published by The Intercept included a memo from the company chastising workers for urinating and defecating in bags while on the job, as well as noting an “uptick recently in all kinds of unsanitary garbage being left inside bags”, including bottles of urine. Dear lord. https://t.co/BLdFCwkfTm pic.twitter.com/obvdMpKyy3 — Alex Kantrowitz (@Kantrowitz) March 25, 2021 The publication of the memo left the company red-faced as less than a day before its Amazon News Twitter account had denied allegations from Wisconsin Congressman Mark Pocan that its workers were urinating in bottles, claiming that if it were true “nobody would work for us”. 1/2 You don’t really believe the peeing in bottles thing, do you? If that were true, nobody 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 great wages and health care from day one. — Amazon News (@amazonnews) March 25, 2021 It isn’t the first time the claim has been aired in the press, with a Guardian report earlier this month citing comments from Amazon workers that they work in poor conditions with immense workloads that force many to forgo toilet breaks to meet delivery targets. The ecommerce giant is also facing accusations of employing “union-busting” activities to prevent workers organising at its huge fulfilment centres, with a New York Times report saying the company has employed intimidation tactics to discourage workers from supporting organising efforts. Amazon shares were down 0.2% at US$3,040 in pre-market trading in New York on Friday.