This article is from WeChat public account: interface News (ID: wowjiemian) , author: Tian Siqi, title figure from: vision China
“Employees are the core and soul of our operations, and we strive to provide them with a safe, comfortable and modern working environment, as well as opportunities for upward mobility.”
“Ron cares about the family. He always cooks for us and brings gifts to everyone during the holiday.” When recalling his brother, Ronald Ashley’s brother Dwayne said so. “He works at Amazon and he buys hundreds of gifts for everyone at Christmas. He is a very generous person.”
In December 2015, Ronald Ashley, senior human technology analyst at Amazon’s Seattle headquarters in the United States, (Ronald Ashley) Spending the last Christmas with my family.
Picture Source: Visual China
Early in 2016, Ashley began to suffer from illness. According to a lawyer at home, Ashley revealed that he was living with the HIV virus and had other illnesses that required frequent washing.Between the hands and changing clothes. The doctor advised him to work from home for a month or two until his condition eased. Unexpectedly, after a few weeks, Ashley fell again in the shower and caused a spine fracture.
As a result, Ashley asked Amazon for three months of sick leave and received a subsidy. But when he continued working from home after applying for $ 150,000 a year, Amazon rejected him and said he could no longer provide benefits.
For the next six months, Ashley is in a financial and health dilemma. By the fall of that year, Ashley’s credit card was already heavily in debt and could not afford the rent.
A colleague in the company’s human resources department told Ashley that he would have easier access to prescription drugs and medical benefits after resigning than to directly confront Amazon. So Ashley chose to leave the company in October of that year.
But Ashley hasn’t given up on other paths. According to the Guardian, he emailed Amazon CEO Bezos in November to describe his experience. Surprisingly, Bezos called him directly and told him that he would investigate the situation to solve the problem and restore Ashley’s employee status.
Unfortunately, Ashley has not been able to wait until the day when a proper solution is available. Ashley’s landlord found his body later that month, several days after he died. An autopsy reported that Ashley died of a heart attack due to stress.
After Ashley’s death, his family filed a lawsuit claiming $ 6.5 million from Amazon.
It is not uncommon for Amazon to file a lawsuit in the media over a labor dispute. In April 2018, Amazon “successfully” entered the list of 12 “most dangerous workplaces” announced by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Commission. In this home appliance and logistics giant, Amazon warehouse employees also face a more dangerous working environment.
In July 2017, 27-year-old Michel Quinos (Michelle Quinones) began in Fort Worth, Texas. Amazon warehouse works as an order picker and works night shifts for a long time. After working for a few months, Quinos developed carpal tunnel syndrome, and his right wrist had to undergo surgery to repair a tendon injury.
But Amazon workers compensation insurance company Sedgwick did not approve Quinos for surgery in February 2019. Prior to this, the Guardian investigation revealed that insurance companies had monitored Quinos for two days in February 2018, trying to refuteReprimanded her for injury claims.
As of November 24, 2019, Amazon had a market capitalization of USD 865.5 billion and Bezos was worth USD 108.9 billion. The Guardian’s report opened the door and asked: Amazon can make his CEO the richest person in the world, but why can’t this company take care of employees who are injured for their work?
However, working healthily in a safe environment does not mean you can escape other risks of unemployment. In the eyes of some employees, Silicon Valley’s technology giants also regarded “old age” as the original sin.
2002, 52-year-old computer scientist Brian Reid (Brian Reid) was hired by Google as the director of operations and the director of engineering . Two years later, he was re-assigned to a new project without getting any budget or staff, and the project was quickly disbanded. In 2004, Reed left Google with a two-month severance payment. In 2010, Google and Reed reached a settlement in a lawsuit that followed.
The court documents show that Reed’s technical performance was well rated, but was accused of failing to integrate into Google’s culture. His boss Wayne Rosing (Wayne Rosing) wrote, “Whether right or wrong, Google is completely different: the environment here is reflected in younger Contributors, inexperienced front-line managers, and super fast pace. “
Rosin replaced him with two employees who were 15 and 20 years younger than Reed. One of Reid’s successors, 38-year-old Swiss software engineer Urs Herzler, (Urs Hölzle) said that Reed’s point of view ” “Obsolete”, “Too old, irrelevant”, he “slowly moves”, “dull”, “sleepy”. Other colleagues also called him “old man” and “old antique”.
Forbes reports that Google began publishing diversity statistics in 2014, vowing to hire more women, minorities, and employees from sexual minorities. However, its diversity report does not mention diversity statistics on “age”.
In recent years, it seems that older candidates have made it more difficult to obtain tickets to the tech giants. Software Engineer Cheryl Felks
Google claims that Felix did not show the technical capabilities required for the job, but a federal judge approved the class action filed by the plaintiff. In July this year, Google agreed to pay $ 11 million to settle the lawsuit for “systemic age discrimination” in its recruitment process — including an average of $ 35,000 in compensation for approximately 227 plaintiffs.
In the process of resolving the Felix case, Alphabet, the parent company of Google, agreed to train employees on age bias and set up a committee to focus on age diversity in human recruitment to ensure that complaints are fully investigated.
As an employee engaged in human work, three years after Ashley’s death, his family has not been able to discuss it. “The whole thing is too hurtful,” said brother Dwayne. “My brother is a carer for Amazon employees, and when he needs benefits, they don’t want to give him. The company is very ironic and disrespectful to him.”
Dwayne Ashley told the Daily Mail that his brother’s financial woes had put him under too much pressure, which caused his mental state to decline. Amazon is growing too fast to properly care for employees.
In April, Amazon declined to comment on The Guardian over a lawsuit involving Ashley’s death. Another representative responded in an email: “Employees are the heart and soul of our operations, and we work hard to provide them with a safe, comfortable and modern working environment, as well as opportunities to move up.”
Ashley’s attorney, Michael Carpin, said (Michael Kapin) On the one hand, Ashley’s family “look forward to their Losses are compensated “, but more importantly,” strongly, they want to make sure there won’t be another family caught in the tragedy they have already experienced “.
This article is from WeChat public account: News interface (ID: wowjiemian) , author: Tiansi Qi < / p>