Amazon unveiled a landmark new employment contract for working parents on Tuesday—but the move has been met with skepticism that it is being rolled out as a tradeoff for what labor unions say is “poverty pay.”
The tech giant announced that it would be offering a new type of contract for parents, grandparents, and guardians of school-age children who work in its U.K. warehouses—essentially giving them the choice to only work during school time.
For those who take the company up on the new contracts, that means a guaranteed six weeks off over the summer, as well as two weeks off during schools’ winter and spring breaks.
Children in Britain generally have a six-week summer vacation, plus two-week breaks for both Easter and Christmas, as well as weeklong breaks between those holidays.
The additional leave offered to working parents will be unpaid, Amazon clarified in an email to Fortune, as the new contracts offer workers 42 weeks of work per year. However, those on the contracts will still have access to benefits like health insurance, the same amount of paid time off, and life assurance.
Amazon’s spokesperson told Fortune that at least three of the 10 weeks staff on the 42-week contracts take off each year must come out of their PTO entitlement. Employees are offered up to five weeks paid leave a year, plus public holidays.
“This contract provides increased flexibility and offers the chance to spend more time with children and save money on childcare, while retaining all employee benefits,” the spokesperson said. “Everyone on a term-time contract receives the same benefits as other employees in our operations network, including private medical insurance and life assurance. [PTO] also remains the same.”
Amazon said the contracts were being rolled out nationwide after successful trials at three of its sites.
Daniella Bridgwater, a working mom who lost her job as a teaching assistant during the pandemic and now works at Amazon’s fulfillment center in Warrington, northwest England, said in a news release on Tuesday that the term-time contract provided “exactly the kind of flexibility I need.”
Meanwhile, Liz Sewell, director of Get Ready for Work—a London-based organization that helps women get back into the workplace—labeled the move from Amazon “interesting and progressive.”
‘Poverty pay’
Not everyone was entirely thrilled by Amazon’s new offering, however.
Amanda Gearing, senior organizer at the labor union GMB, implied that the flexible contracts on offer were an attempt by Amazon to appease striking workers.
GMB is fighting to be the first union in Europe to be recognized by Amazon, and is pressuring the tech giant to increase its pay rates for warehouse staff. Members of the union who work for the company have been striking in recent weeks, with hundreds of workers at Amazon’s Coventry depot striking for more than two weeks this month.
In an interview with the BBC on Tuesday, Gearing said she did not believe the new school-time-only contracts were what Amazon staff were looking for right now.
“They want more money in their pocket, what they’re telling us is they can’t live on poverty pay,” she said.
In a statement emailed to Fortune on Tuesday, Gearing argued it was “no coincidence that 16 days of strike action have come before this [new contract] offer.”
“The workers are clear—they want their trade union to be recognized. They want a fair pay offer of £15 ($18.65) per hour. In the worst cost of living crisis for a generation it is only fair. Amazon needs to stop dithering, talk to GMB and recognize us as their workers’ voice.”
Amazon says it already offers “competitive pay and a comprehensive benefits package,” with hourly rates for fulfillment center staff starting at £11 or £12 ($13.68 or $14.92) per hour depending on location, and said it recently hiked pay for warehouse employees by 10%.
The U.K. is currently grappling with its deepest cost of living crisis in decades, with inflation remaining stubbornly high at above 10% for the majority of the past year. Wages, meanwhile, have struggled to keep up, putting the country at risk of seeing its fastest decline in quality of life on record.
