A Freedom of Information request to ambulance services from the GMB union has revealed that over the past three years, ambulances were called out 600 times to an Amazon warehouse, with 115 call outs this year to site in Rugeley, near Birmingham.

  • Three call outs were related to pregnancy or maternity problems
  • Three for major trauma
  • Two calls out for electric shock
  • Eight call outs for people who had fallen unconscious

Approximately 1.800 people work year round, with over 2000 working during the Christmas period.  According to another FOI request by the union, only 8 ambulance calls in total were made over the same amount of time- to a similar nearby Tesco warehouse, employing 1,300 staff.

Britain’s General Union

The GMB stated that four fifths of the union members working for the firm had responded to a survey in which they described suffering pain as result of their work load, with one pregnant woman reporting she had been made to stand for her entire 10 hour shift.

Pregnant women working at the warehouse complained to the GMB about mistreatment

  • “I told them I could not walk so many miles and I could not pick from low locations. I had a meeting with a safety manager and was also told: ‘It’s not what you want, it’s what we decide’.
  • “My manager told me that most women are working on picking until their maternity leave. I know this is true because I saw ladies with huge bumps picking.”
  • Another woman said: “I am pregnant and they put me to stand 10 hours without a chair, they are telling me to work hard even they know I am pregnant. I am feeling depressed when I am at work.”

Mick Rix, a GMB National Officer stated that the union had been told of a woman who suffered a miscarriage whilst working, which she believed was a result of, continued pressure to hit performance targets. Pressure to hit such targets makes it difficult for staff to take time out breaks to visit toilets or get a drink.

“Hundreds of ambulance call-outs, pregnant women telling us they are forced to stand for 10 hours a day, pick, stow, stretch and bend, pull heavy carts and walk miles – even miscarriages and pregnancy issues at work. None of these things happen in safe, happy working environments.”

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