American conglomerate Amazon has once again stirred up a controversy over the treatment of its employees here in India. According to a report published by the Indian Express, workers at Amazon India’s Haryana warehouse are subjected to harsh working conditions, without breaks and without punishment because they are human.

A young worker from the warehouse in Manesar told it I.E that the workers were forced to take a ‘no break’ oath until the targets for the day were achieved. Employees are legally entitled to breaks, but employees are monitored for toilet, tea and water breaks.

The objectives generally involve strenuous physical activities, including unloading or loading trucks. The goal for these employees is to unload 6 trucks, each 7 meters high. “The worst affected are women. The trucks are hot because they are parked outside, and when they unload items they get exhausted quickly,” said an employee.

A worker told me I.E that employees were forced to take an oath to forgo all breaks, including washroom and water. One team that deals with the items coming to the warehouse has taken an oath with times in a month. Even after forgoing their lunch and tea breaks, they would not be able to unload more than four trucks.

Amazon India has denied the claims. However, an official said they are investigating the claims. “But to be clear, we would never make these types of requests to our employees as part of standard business practice. If we discovered an incident like the one alleged, we would put an end to it immediately and ensure that the manager involved was re-trained on our team support, health and safety expectations. We will continue to investigate,” the person said I.E

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Amazon India employees have also claimed that the toilets are checked regularly to ensure that no time is “wasted” by employees. In one case, an employee was resting in the laundry room when the supervisor caught her and threatened to have her ID blocked.

Despite being assigned a medical or sick room, no employee is allowed to rest for more than 10 minutes and will be turned back.

One employee in charge of customer returns, who earns Rs 10,088 per month, is expected to stand for nine hours a day and check 60 small products or 40 medium products to ensure the products are eligible for returns. Their department was also forced to take a similar oath.

Not the first time for Amazon

This is not the first time the conglomerate has faced such allegations in India. Amazon’s policy has also been condemned internationally. The US had also filed charges against the company in six cases for unsafe working conditions in warehouses in 2022 and 2023, according to a report by the Guardian.

Under the Factories Act of 1948, factory workers who work more than nine hours a day or 48 hours a week are entitled to twice the declared wage. However, labor groups claim the laws are not being enforced. It also gives workers the right to rest in a boarding facility for 30 minutes at least every five hours.