Amazon says sorry to Mark Pocan for employee pee bottles tweet
Amazon has apologised for a tweet it sent to a US congressman denying that its delivery drivers pee in bottles due to pressure to meet quotas.
Wisconsin Representative Mark Pocan had flagged the issue in response to an Amazon claim that the company was a progressive workplace.
To which Amazon’s social media peeps responded: "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.”
Throwing caution to the wind, they also attacked two of their employer’s biggest critics in US political circles: Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.
“An industry wide problem”
In a blog post, Amazon acknowledged that delivery drivers "can and do have trouble finding restrooms because of traffic or sometimes rural routes".
The social media outburst, it conceded, was “an own goal, we’re unhappy about it, and we owe an apology to Representative Pocan.”
It claimed, however, that urinating in bottles is an industry wide problem.
"Regardless of that fact, we would like to solve it. We don't yet know how, but will look for solutions,” it added.
"Sigh," Pocan responded on Twitter. "This is not about me, this is about your workers, who you don't treat with enough respect or dignity.”
“Start by acknowledging the inadequate working conditions you've created for ALL your workers, then fix that for everyone & finally, let them unionise without interference.”