Amazon Offers To Help Train Workers For Other Jobs 148
itwbennett writes "Amazon, which has come under attack for harsh warehouse working conditions, on Monday announced a new training benefit program for fulfillment center employees. The program will cover 95% of the cost of vocational training for jobs that Amazon determined to be in high demand and that pay relatively well, including aircraft mechanics, computer-aided design, machine tool technology, medical laboratory science and nursing."
Two limitations of note: the maximum Amazon will contribute is $2,000/year for four years, and the employees need to have worked full-time for three consecutive years before they can take advantage of the program.
I work here (Score:5, Interesting)
I was a temp, got converted, then hired into IT. Luckily there was a career path I was interested in... Due to what the company is and does, there just isn't much room for upward mobility or different career paths. They listened to the warehouse workers and gave them this option, which everyone loves. You put in your time and do your job, and after three years you can do what you want, and Amazon will pay for it.
That does not compute. (Score:4, Interesting)
"The program will cover 95% of the cost"
"the maximum Amazon will contribute is $2,000/year for four years"
2,000 $/yr * 4 yr = .95 X
X = $8421
So apparently you can become a trained aircraft mechanic for not much more than $8,000. Which is about 1/3 to 1/4 the cost of a common Bachelor's degree.
Yeah, either the summary dropped a zero somewhere, aircraft mechanics are trained far less than you would think, or that 95% figure is *way* off.
Re:Yikes... (Score:1, Interesting)
I think what most people would "expect Amazon to do" would be to act a bit more humane, even if the prices were slightly higher (even by US$5 or $10 for inexpensive items). I would recommend everyone considering responding similar to how you have to read this story by a reporter who worked there to find out what the working conditions on a daily basis were actually like:
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/02/mac-mcclelland-free-online-shipping-warehouses-labor [motherjones.com]
I hope that after reading the story, you too would agree that less gruelling working conditions would be more ideal overall even if it meant slightly higher prices. I surely can't be the only one who feels comfortable paying a bit more for something knowing that the people getting my order together aren't being treated like dogshit.
Re:That does not compute. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Scam (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Amazon is switching to robots (Score:2, Interesting)
I really don't think this has anything to do with personal development as much as it has to do with the upcoming cattle call for peak season.This is more or less another carrot to dangle since it's getting harder to get people to come back. People don't like being led on and generally treated like shit from managers that act as if they are running a military operation.It gets old after the first week or so. I spent a few years there and still feel bad for the way temps. were treated. I've seen Kiva in action and am not at all impressed - lot of down time.
Re:Yikes... (Score:4, Interesting)
What do you expect Amazon to do? Give a free full ride to anyone who asks?
But that's the thing, their temps didn't ask for a full ride, nor did they ask for extra training. They only asked for the dock doors to be opened so they get could get some ventilation in.
So not only, Amazon didn't respond to the issue at hand, the fact that their people are getting heat strokes. They're not even addressing the right people. It's not their "full-time employees" that are getting heat strokes, it's mostly their temporary employees that are getting them because it's their temps that are the most vulnerable in the company.
And not only, are they not addressing the main complaint that managers are routinely bullying their employees during the height of their heat strokes to sign papers saying that the root cause of their heat strokes are not work-related, but now they're trying to regurgitate those same manufactured statistics back to the public -- in the form of even vaguer comparisons -- as if they had not even read the original complaints against them.
What the hell are their PR people doing? Are they so out of touch? There are a thousand ways the company could have responded better to these criticisms.
Re:Yikes... (Score:3, Interesting)
This assumes you're hiring permanent employees. I'm assuming that you are not based in the USA.
Salaries - N/A. You cut a check to the temp agency and they pay THEIR employee. Since they take their cut, there is that much less to pay the worker.
Taxes - 100% of what you pay a temp agency is deductible as a 'business expense'. You don't even have to worry about payroll taxes or paying into that annoying socialist un-American terrorist program called Social Security, either; the temp agency manages that.
Insurance - Temp employees don't get insurance, apart from what they're entitled to by law. This usually means worker's comp and nothing else. No life insurance, no short- or long- term disability, and DEFINITELY no health insurance.
Unemployment insurance - The temp agencies pay as little as possible into the pool. This means that every claim gets fought. Temp agencies are notorious for going into these hearings and telling bald-faced lies, because they know that the ex-worker won't be able to prove otherwise. Or, before the worker can file a claim, they offer them an assignment that is either blatantly illegal or they physically cannot accept due to massive safety issues or those pesky 'laws of physics' that prevent you from showing up for an assignment that starts in 20 minutes, when you're 30 minutes away from the location. Then, at the hearing, they'll be able to (technically correctly) argue that you turned down an assignment and therefore voluntarily quit.
Vacations - Temp employees don't get vacation days. Or any other paid time off. You want a sick day? You're fired. You come in anyway, even though you're so sick you can't do your job? You're fired. Your child dies in an auto accident and you want to go to the funeral? You're fired. You're in an auto accident and are in the hospital with three broken limbs? After you go bankrupt because you can't pay the hospital bill (because of course, you have no health insurance), you're fired.
Christmas bonuses - That's the funniest thing I've heard all week. NOBODY in the USA gets ANY KIND of bonus anymore, unless you're a C-level executive at a big company, in which case you can get a bonus for keeping expenses down (for example, creating an atmosphere in which you can pay the temp agencies as little as possible, since they're desperate for clients.)
Exacerbating the problem is the fact that it's 100% legal for your employer to turn to you and say "OK, you're fired, if you want to keep working here, call this temp agency." The company being able to get the same work for less pay is a good enough reason to fire someone, especially in low-skill jobs like warehouse work (since it costs next to nothing to hire a replacement). Technically, since most states are at-will employment states, they don't even need the slightest pretense to fire you. I have literally been told, to my face, when I asked why I was being fired, "We don't have to tell you."