Amazon has announced a pay rise of almost 10% for tens of thousands of UK employees, after defeating an attempt by the GMB union to claim bargaining rights over pay and conditions.
The online retailer said the increase would lift the minimum wage by 9.8% to between £13.50 and £14.50 an hour, depending on location. Staff with at least three years’ service will receive a minimum of between £13.75 and £14.75 an hour.
The pay rise will apply to thousands of Amazon employees from September 29, including delivery drivers and those employed at the retailer’s UK fulfillment centers.
British Amazon workers have staged a series of strikes recently. The company said it had invested £550m in increasing employee pay from 2022 and added that staff were receiving benefits such as subsidised meals and discounts.
A spokesperson said: “That’s why we’re proud to announce that we’re increasing our minimum starting salary for all frontline employees to the equivalent of over £28,000 per year and continuing to offer industry-leading benefits from day one.”
Rachel Fagan, GMB organiser, said: “This is too little, too late from Amazon bosses, who have been forced into action by workers striking. Amazon’s reputation is in tatters over its treatment of its own workers and now the company’s bosses are trying to cover up the facts. Unsafe working conditions, low pay and over-policing blight the lives of Amazon workers every day.”
The GMB narrowly lost a statutory vote at Amazon’s warehouse outside Coventry in July, which would have resulted in formal recognition of the union. In the close vote, 50.5% of workers rejected the idea.
Workers in Coventry have carried out a series of strikes over the past 18 months, demanding a minimum wage of £15 an hour and the right to negotiate directly with management. Last November they were joined on the picket line by trade unionists from Europe and the US, who have raised similar issues in their home countries.
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Amazon has a global policy of not cooperating with unions, arguing that it prefers to have a direct relationship with staff. The retail and cloud services group was founded by Jeff Bezos in his garage in 1994 and is now worth nearly $2 trillion.
Some employees at the Coventry warehouse accused Amazon of using anti-union tactics, including displaying QR codes that, when scanned, generated an email to the GMB membership department to cancel a worker’s membership.
The Labour government has promised to make it easier for unions to obtain recognition, as part of a package of measures aimed at increasing the bargaining power of the UK workforce.
