Amazon UK Drivers Reportedly Forced To Urinate In Bottles To Hit 200 Packages A Day Quota

zerohedge.com

Amazon delivery drivers in the UK are asked to deliver up to 200 packages a day while earning less than minimum wage for agencies contracted by Amazon. The drivers reportedly have to keep schedules so tight they are forced to skip rest breaks and urinate in bottles, according to an investigation by UK's Sunday Mirror. The report comes weeks after the newspaper reported on brutal work conditions at an Amazon UK warehouses. "If the drivers return to the Amazon depot without having made enough attempts to deliver parcels, or if they can’t work for any reason, they risk having their pay cut, being fined or denied future shifts," reports the Mirror.

The allegations surfaced after investigative reporter Dan Warburton spent a day with an Amazon delivery driver so he could experience the "impossible" schedules that often exceed their 11 hour shifts - a limit mandated by UK law.

The Sunday Mirror reports:  

I hopped in a white van to spend a day with one driver and experience first-hand the intolerable pressures they face from “impossible” schedules.

Many routinely exceed the legal maximum shift of 11 hours and finish their days dead on their feet. Yet they have so little time for food or toilet stops they snatch hurried meals on the run and urinate into plastic bottles they keep in their vans. They say they often break speed limits to meet targets that take no account of delays such as ice, traffic jams or road closures.

Warburton's report comes on the heels of a similar investigation by the BBC in November, which also found Amazon drivers working for Amazon subcontractor 'AHC Services" were forced to work over 11 hours and earned less than minimum wage, while also having to urinate in bottles and defecate in bags.