The company is asking “entrepreneurs” to set up their own delivery business to deliver Amazon orders. Faced with a high volume of sales, rather than hire employees directly, Amazon will use people as “independent contractors” to deliver packages, particularly at the last leg of the delivery route. This means workers take on the risks of the work without access to benefits or stable work.
As I note in a recent Washington Post article: “This would give even more bargaining power to Amazon by making the worker reliant on them for wages, schedules and stability,” said Stephanie Luce, a professor of labor studies at the City University of New York. “It represents a general trend of increased power for employers as workers sign away their rights.”
