Comments by "Helen Trope" (@heliotropezzz333) on "‘I’m now delivering 320 parcels a day’: The pressure of Amazon delivery targets - BBC Newsnight" video.

I don't know what's happened in recent years, but years ago I used to work for the government on the national insurance side of things and sometimes we had to interview people using a checklist of questions to decide whether they were self-employed or not. If they hit the right criteria they were employees no matter what they had been told about their status. Whether people are employees or self-employed is determined by a set of criteria, not self-declaration or declaration by companies. Amazon drivers could test this in court as Uber drivers did.
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Presumably drivers can't choose which hours they work. They can't choose which routes to use. They are clearly employees.
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I really try not to order stuff from Amazon, unless I can't get it elsewhere. Unfortunately, the younger generation of my family are used to getting things from Amazon and rely on it much more. I don't think Amazon are fair to their staff, or to other retailers.
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@avebis5709 Their status isn't truly self-employed given the conditions they work under. They should test this in court like the Uber drivers did.
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@SayKuun If a manager can tell a person what to do, then that person is not self-employed although the manager may tell them they are. Self-employment is not a question of imposition. There are objective criteria that determine whether a person is truly self-employed or not. If they don't meet those criteria because they are managed and told what to do, then they can take the case to court for judgement. If they are judged to be employed, the employer has to meet employment legislation - pay at least the minimum wage, pay employers national insurance and deduct employees national insurance, deduct tax, grant holiday and sick leave etc etc. Uber drivers recently won a case on this.
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@SayKuun I do understand but a truly self-employed person will be able to take on work from anyone who wishes to contract with them, so they do not have to work exclusively for one person. If a person demands exclusive rights to your labour, you don't meet the criteria for self-employment. They are effectively (in law) your employer whether they like it or not. I understand the pressures people can be under to do as they are told. All I am saying is that such managers don't have a leg to stand on legally if taken to court. I'm referring to the law in the UK. I don't know about other countries.
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It's become the land of exploitation.
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