Amazon Issued 13,000 Disciplinary Notices At Single U.S. Warehouse

Gerald Bryson, an Amazon employee, had been hand-counting thousands of items in his warehouse's inventory for three days when his manager handed him a "Supportive Feedback Document."

Photo Insert: Amazon issued more than 13,000 so-called "disciplines" in Bryson's warehouse alone in a single year ending April 2020. Around that period, the facility employed approximately 5,300 people.

According to the 2018 report, Bryson made 22 mistakes, including counting 19 goods in a storage bin that actually had 20. If Bryson makes this mistake six times in a year, he would be fired from Amazon.com Inc.'s Staten Island warehouse, which is one of the largest in the United States, according to Reuters' Jeffrey Dastin.

Internal Amazon memos, previously unseen, reveal how the business routinely monitored workers' performance in minute detail and chastised those who fell even marginally short of goals - often even before their shift ended.

According to court documents, Amazon issued more than 13,000 so-called "disciplines" in Bryson's warehouse alone in a single year ending April 2020. Around that period, the facility employed approximately 5,300 people.

Records and interviews with current and former employees demonstrate that Amazon line workers are under great pressure to accomplish duties as accurately and quickly as the company demands, creating a climate that several workers told Reuters has fueled unionization efforts across the country.

According to the Amazon Labor Union, an independent labor union created in April 2021, Bryson's workplace voted in March to become Amazon's first organized warehouse in the United States, and employees from more than 100 other locations nationally are attempting to follow suit.

Amazon, the largest online retailer in the United States, published this information in response to a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) complaint against Bryson's dismissal in April 2020.

Many of these documents were included in a separate and continuing federal court complaint filed by the NLRB to curb what it called Amazon's "flagrant unfair labor practices," which the company contested in court papers.

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