Amazon working conditions

Comparative to what? The national debt?

Comparative to the other tax they do pay. Do you honestly think if they paid nothing they’d be allowed to trade here? Even in these days of Dave’s mates getting deals, there are still some rules to be played by.

Don’t get me wrong – I don’t agree with it, but you also have to be realistic. Companies are now bigger and more influential than governments, which is scary. Don’t like a company? Then hit them with what you can – your and other people’s buying power.

I dislike Nestlé and won’t buy their products. This is one household in millions. But I share this and I’m not alone.

I dont think objecting to amazons working practices makes you a DM reader it just means you are not a heartless ****

😆

At the end of the day there are plenty of other low-paid warehouse jobs out there – Amazon does not have the monopoly. One of the good things with capitalism (and I don’t consider myself a capitalist) is that there’s choice. Don’t like your job? Then go to an agency and get another.

It got more grants than it paid Corporation tax and its turnover is £4 billion UK sales only – corporation tax £2.4 million .
The loss is substantial despite the “small” claims you make

With regard to that, how much would it cost HMRC to chase it up? And then how much would the UK lose if Amazon shifted all its warehouses to Spain, sacking all its employees and shutting its UK office?

It’s a balancing act and, like I said above, companies are now bigger and more influential than governments, which is scary. They can hold governments to ransom.

binners – Member

Erm…. That’s not the same thing at all, is it?

It is, though. You keep saying it’s exactly the same, even while knowing it isn’t.

Comparative to the other tax they do pay. Do you honestly think if they paid nothing they’d be allowed to trade here? Even in these days of Dave’s mates getting deals, there are still some rules to be played by.

Such as VAT? Paid by the customer. Then let’s look at the tax subsidies we give to their poorly-paid employees.

Don’t get me wrong – I don’t agree with it, but you also have to be realistic. Companies are now bigger and more influential than governments, which is scary. Don’t like a company? Then hit them with what you can – your and other people’s buying power.

I’ve already said that I don’t buy from them. Companies are only powerful because we allow them to be.

Such as VAT? Paid by the customer.

This is the customer buying from Amazon (that has small margins to allow selling good so cheaply and relies on bulk to make a profit)? OK, but while those goods are bought in the UK from a UK-based company that VAT (20% of purchase price – no small amount) will go into the government coffer. If Amazon left the UK then that’s a lot of potential tax gone in one fell swoop – there’s no guarantee that the sales Amazon would have made would be made elsewhere.

Then let’s look at the tax subsidies we give to their poorly-paid employees.

Let’s look at them. Got any examples?

I’ve already said that I don’t buy from them. Companies are only powerful because we allow them to be.

Well at least we agree on something. 😉

Unfortunately if we only bought products from companies that paid their employees well and only bought products from completely ethical companies we would not have a great deal of choice of where to buy from.

For example there is no point buying an iProduct from anywhere however they treat their staff as the Foxconn employees who build the iThingymajigs are treated appallingly.

I don’t see what Amazon are doing as unusual or unfair. When I worked in a call centre we had to take x calls an hour, were monitored all the time (because of the phone system we had they could and did even listen to the office chit chat between calls).

We would get a manager interrupting the call if they felt we had been on too long, every key press was recorded, breaks timed to the second etc.