"UN decries Amazon, Walmart, DoorDash for ‘shameful’ wages and union-busting", November 2 2023

The UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights has called on the CEOs of Amazon, Walmart and DoorDash and the US government to address allegations that top US corporations pay such low wages that they trap workers in poverty, forcing them to rely on government-assistance programs to survive.

....a 2020 US Government Accountability Office report ... found Amazon and Walmart were listed among the top 25 employers with workers relying on the supplemental nutrition assistance program (Snap) ... or Medicaid in nine states studied, with Walmart ranked first and Amazon ranked sixth.

... major concerns were the US minimum wage, wage theft by employers, unpredictable yet inflexible working schedules, the plight of undocumented workers, the violation of union rights and automation.

“What these companies do for the most part is not illegal. What they do is use the loopholes in the system – for example, misclassifying workers as independent contractors rather than employees ... ” said [UN special rapporteur Olivier] De Schutter.

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The trio of corporations and the government were asked to reply within 60 days of receiving the letters ... DoorDash responded after the letters were made public, disputing the allegations and claiming they will provide a response in the coming weeks.

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DoorDash is one of the leading gig platforms to have faced scrutiny over its classification of workers as independent contractors, and how it determines pay based on active time as opposed to when workers are on call. It has opposed wage increase ordinances for workers amid complaints over low pay linked to its gig worker model.

Walmart, the largest employer in the US, has long faced scrutiny over low wages ... [and] has a long record of aggressive union busting against worker-organizing efforts.

Amazon was the only employer to respond within 60 days ...

... Amazon dismissed claims of low wages and didn’t dispute workers relying on federal assistance programs. But it claimed that the company’s wages either make workers ineligible for federal assistance programs such as Snap; workers received federal assistance before employment at Amazon while they were unemployed; or they receive assistance based on other circumstances, such as household size or the qualifying disability of a household member.

Amazon also disputed complaints of violating union rights of workers, but reaffirmed its opposition to the win of workers who voted to unionize at the Amazon warehouse in Staten Island, New York, in 2022.

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Amazon reportedly spent more than $14.2m on anti-union consultants in 2022.

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