The company will be required to pay $61.7 million to the FTC, which the agency will distribute to drivers. Only when the FTC told Amazon it was being investigated did the company change its pay practices, announcing to drivers in August 2019 that it was implementing an "Updated Earnings Experience," which was in fact the payment scheme Flex used upon its initial launch.Īmazon did not admit wrongdoing as part of the settlement. At the same time, Amazon employees circulated these complaints internally and acknowledged that the issue was "a huge PR risk for Amazon," the complaint alleges. Hundreds of drivers saw their pay decrease and complained to Amazon, the FTC said, but the company responded to them with canned emails saying that "delivery partners still earn $18-25 per hour including 100% of customer tips," the complaint says. "Based on the information Amazon provided, drivers could not tell whether Amazon had contributed its minimum for the delivery block or a lesser amount, nor could drivers tell the amount of any customer tip."Īmazon also discouraged customers from tipping in cash, with the app saying that "cash is not accepted upon delivery." Under this system, the complaint alleges, Amazon could advertise a payment of "$18-$24" for a particular delivery, but if a customer tipped $6, Amazon would only pay the driver $12, for an $18 total payment.Īt that point, "Amazon decided to obscure from drivers that it was reducing their pay, and began reporting their earnings as a single lump sum that hid any distinction between customer tips and pay from Amazon," the complaint alleges. In late 2016, the company secretly switched to a variable-pay system, where the amount drivers earned would fluctuate based on an internal algorithm, regulators allege.
Soon after Amazon Flex launched, however, the company started skimming drivers' tips, the FTC claims. The company told drivers that it would "pass to you 100% of tips you earn" it also told customers that "100% of your tips are passed on to your courier," according to the FTC complaint. Amazon advertised that drivers could make $18 to $25 an hour in the program and earn tips for certain deliveries, according to the FTC complaint. Launched in 2015, Amazon Flex allowed ordinary people to sign up for shifts using their personal car to deliver Amazon packages.
0 kommentar(er)
