Dive Brief:
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Amazon is trying out a policy of granting full-time benefits to part-time tech employees, CNN Money reports.
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Under the new policy, all workers on the part-time teams will work 'core hours' Monday through Thursday, from 10 a.m. to 2pm and enjoy flexible hours for the balance of the week, according to the report. Amazon didn’t respond to CNN Money’s request for comment, and it’s not clear what positions are affected.
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Amazon is also hosting a discussion at its Seattle headquarters next week entitled "Reinventing the Work-Life Ratio for Tech Talent,” according to an invitation cited in the report.
Dive Insight:
While Amazon has consistently suffered damning publicity over its working conditions, its pay and benefits have long been above standard.
But the company has faced numerous complaints about the pressures of working conditions at warehouses, where speed and accuracy are paramount and where workers are often forced to wait in long lines without pay as the company checks bags for any pilfered goods.
Earlier this year the company caught flak for installing big-screen monitors to broadcast streams of images of workers fired after they were caught stealing on the job. The employees are seen in silhouettes, stamped with the words “Terminated” or “Arrested."
And about a year ago, the New York Times ran a brutal report describing a cut-throat culture at its white-collar offices, too, and alleged policies that penalized sick employees for missing work. That story also sparked a public argument between Amazon founder/CEO Jeff Bezos and New York Times executive editor Dean Baquet.
Full-time Amazon employees enjoy generous parental leave policies, and the benefits packages are the same for warehouse workers and white-collar workers, a spokesperson told Retail Dive earlier this year.
The company earlier this year also managed to assuage concerns from the activist arm of investment firm Baldwin Brothers, which had pressured the company to disclose its gender-based pay policies. The e-retail giant was able to demonstrate that its female workers are paid the same as its male workers.