Amazon warehouse employees in India are nonetheless being compelled to work in temperatures as excessive as 55C and the bulk really feel circumstances are too scorching to be secure, based on a brand new survey.
The survey was launched on Monday by UNI World Union, practically one yr after the corporate got here beneath fireplace over accounts of employees fainting and falling sick in stifling circumstances.
It covers 474 warehouse and supply employees throughout India this summer season. Of these surveyed, 75 per cent mentioned they or a coworker required medical consideration and 58 per cent described their workplaces as “extraordinarily scorching and unsafe” or feeling “like an oven”. Practically 68 per cent mentioned they’d felt sick, dizzy, or faint at work, and 85 per cent witnessed a coworker fall unwell from warmth publicity.
Amazon has strongly rejected the findings of the survey, saying it’s proud to supply employment for round 120,000 individuals in India and that it has measures in place to make sure their security within the office.
Union officers and employees, however, argued that the survey findings matched their each day experiences. Requested in regards to the hottest temperatures they needed to endure inside an Amazon India warehouse, employees within the report gave figures starting from 42C to as excessive as 55C. Practically half of the employees mentioned they weren’t instructed the precise temperature inside their amenities.
Forty-one per cent mentioned they couldn’t sluggish their tempo with out risking penalties and 59 per cent described their targets as unachievable in excessive warmth. Greater than half mentioned they had been punished or warned for slowing down throughout heatwaves, with penalties starting from wage loss (36 per cent) and disciplinary motion (38 per cent) to lack of bonuses (15 per cent) and even staff penalties (11 per cent).
Solely 7 per cent reported being granted additional breaks throughout heatwaves whereas 16 per cent mentioned they had been provided no cooling measures in any respect and 51 per cent mentioned that they had been denied healthcare after disclosing signs.
Amazon mentioned the survey was “not an correct illustration of the expertise of a whole bunch of 1000’s of individuals working throughout our operations community in India”.
“Against this, our newest inside surveys, performed anonymously, present that 9 out of 10 associates charge Amazon favourably on job satisfaction,” a spokesperson instructed The Unbiased.
The “amenities are air-conditioned, present secure working circumstances, and embody infrastructure particularly designed to assist affiliate well being and luxury,” the spokesperson mentioned. “We not too long ago introduced an funding of Rs20bn (£167m) to additional elevate affiliate expertise.”
This new funding, Amazon India claimed, entailed putting in new cooling programs, setting up enhanced security measures, and increasing Undertaking Ashray, a community of relaxation stops for supply drivers providing air-conditioned seating, water, bathrooms, first help, and refreshments.
Sixty-five such amenities are at present operational and greater than 100 are deliberate by the tip of 2025, the corporate mentioned.
The Unbiased spoke to a lot of employees at Amazon’s Manesar warehouse within the northern state of Haryana, who mentioned that whereas the circumstances provided by the corporate look good on paper, in follow employees nonetheless face each day struggles.
One 24-year-old who has been employed on-and-off with Amazon India since 2020 in Manesar, instructed The Unbiased unloading vans within the fulfilment centre dock typically grew to become insufferable.
“Sure, I agree there’s a fan within the space. However the vans are between 32 and 34ft and there’s no fan inside,” he mentioned. “When you go and inform our seniors that we’re feeling scorching, they are saying: ‘Do the work or else go dwelling.’”
The stress prolonged past the warmth, he complained. “We’re anticipated to unload the car inside one to one-and-a-half hours. The car is large – it’s not doable to unload every little thing inside that point with simply three individuals. Due to the acute warmth, many refuse to go contained in the truck. This typically results in fights amongst us.”
He mentioned he complained a number of instances to managers in regards to the scenario, after which he was issued a warning letter.
A second employee, 23, who additionally spoke on the situation of anonymity for worry of retaliation, described the stress of hitting a goal of attaching 650 labels an hour within the warehouse. “One time, I returned from the toilet and my supervisor requested the place I had been. After I instructed him, he mentioned, ‘You receives a commission to work, the corporate doesn’t pay so that you can go to the toilet or drink water.’”
He mentioned the stress to fulfill such targets made the work extra harmful. “There are bins of mattresses, polythene, and tape that we’ve got to chop open with knives,” he defined. “Due to the pace we’re compelled to work at, individuals rush. When persons are shifting shortly with knives, there’s all the time an opportunity of harm. From what I see, security will not be being given the significance it deserves.”
Each males mentioned that fainting was an everyday prevalence in the summertime. “A few of my feminine buddies fainted. I witnessed this many instances,” mentioned the primary employee.
Medical assist, they mentioned, was restricted to the on-site clinic handing out painkillers. “Each time we go and say we’re sick or feeling unwell, they offer us a paracetamol pill and inform us to relaxation a bit and return to work,” he mentioned.
“We don’t even entertain the idea of taking breaks or resting. On paper, we’re allowed numerous issues, however the repercussions are so harsh that we don’t even give it some thought.”
For lots of the surveyed employees, talking up carried its personal dangers: 42 per cent mentioned they feared reprisals for elevating security issues.
Simply 27 per cent of employees mentioned they felt secure elevating points whereas 47 per cent mentioned Amazon didn’t take warmth security critically.
Staff mentioned any enhancements on the bottom had been modest. “There have solely been a couple of adjustments since final yr’s heatwave and the media consideration, and even these had been made resulting from stress from the union,” the 23-year-old employee instructed The Unbiased.
“They’ve put in a couple of followers and coolers however every little thing else is just about the identical. The targets stay the identical. As for the wage, they solely elevated it by Rs700 (£5.80). So, earlier I used to be getting paid Rs10,088 (£84) and now I get Rs10,788 (£90) per thirty days.”
His colleague put it bluntly: “A number of individuals I’ve labored with through the years stayed right here for 2 or three months after which left. They mentioned the warmth is an excessive amount of, the work stress is so excessive, it doesn’t look doable to us.”
The selection to endure or depart Amazon is formed as a lot by the warmth inside warehouses as by the shortage of labor exterior. In response to the federal government’s newest Periodic Labour Power Survey, unemployment rose to five.6 per cent in June 2025, up from 5.1 per cent the earlier month, The New Indian Categorical reported.
Unbiased estimates are worse: the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economic system places June’s unemployment determine at 7 per cent.
Even with the worry of retaliation, low wages and harsh circumstances, employees settle for the dangers: casual work stays widespread in India and formal contracts providing regular month-to-month earnings and social safety are onerous to seek out exterior massive platforms.
Amazon maintains that its fulfilment centres are geared up with air-conditioned break rooms with ample seating, the place employees are entitled to 2 scheduled 30-minute breaks per shift and also can take casual pauses when wanted. The corporate additionally claims that skilled nursing employees present first-aid cowl in any respect massive websites and that common security drills and evacuation protocols are carried out in any respect their fulfilment centres.
They insist that the survey’s allegations should not consultant of the corporate’s amenities, highlighting its coverage of offering breaks, chilly water, electrolytes and climate-control programs. It says managers are skilled to encourage employees to make use of their full break instances and that their “break adherence report demonstrates 96 per cent of associates take sufficient breaks”.
“The survey in query seems to have been intentionally framed to advance a pre-set narrative by those that want to tarnish Amazon’s popularity in India,” an Amazon India spokesperson mentioned, including that “we can’t verify the authenticity of the survey or the 474 respondents which are quoted within the survey”.
The strain between employee accounts and company assurances will not be new. Final summer season, throughout one among India’s hottest seasons ever, media retailers, together with The Unbiased, documented employees collapsing, vomiting and being pressured to work by means of the warmth.
In June 2024, the Nationwide Human Rights Fee took discover of studies saying that warehouse employees on the Manesar facility had been forbidden lavatory or water breaks whereas working beneath excessive warmth.
Amazon later admitted “security lapses” in that warehouse however described them as “unlucky and remoted” and initiated disciplinary proceedings in opposition to these implicated within the incident.
Globally, the American firm has confronted comparable allegations. Final yr, the US Occupational Security and Well being Administration reached a settlement with Amazon for failing to adequately shield warehouse employees at 10 amenities throughout the nation. Within the UK, the GMB union has campaigned for years over what it calls “inhuman” targets and unsafe circumstances, resulting in strikes at Amazon’s Coventry website in 2023 and 2024.
In November final yr, Amazon India employees joined the worldwide “Make Amazon Pay” protests alongside the corporate’s employees within the US, Germany and France, demanding larger wages, sufficient relaxation breaks, and union rights.
Regardless of the scrutiny, Amazon’s enterprise in India has continued to develop. In response to the Financial Instances, the corporate’s market arm Amazon Vendor Companies had an working income of Rs254bn (£2.1bn) within the 2024 monetary yr, up 14 per cent from the earlier yr, whereas logistics arm Amazon Transportation Companies reported revenues of Rs48.89bn (£407m).
“The 2024 heatwave was a warning and one yr later our survey reveals little has modified,” UNI World Union basic secretary Christy Hoffman mentioned. “No employee must be compelled to threat their well being or their life for Amazon’s backside line. Warmth protections should be enforceable, and employees themselves will need to have a say in setting the requirements.”
For the employees, the guarantees stay onerous to reconcile with lived actuality. “For my part, they don’t take security critically. The best way they push us to fulfill targets, it’s not possible to take care of correct security,” mentioned one of many employees.
