Inside Amazon’s shadow workforce in Mexico

A worker scans items with a handheld device, then puts them in storage pods maneuvered by robots. Interviews with workers, copies of pay slips, and WhatsApp messages from Amazon HR reveal that many had to work overtime beyond legal limits while others were let go without severance, forced to resign, or laid off after falling ill with Covid-19. — Seattle Times/TNS

MEXICO CITY: After six months of shifts moving boxes at an Amazon warehouse near Mexico City as a contract worker, Jaime Hidalgo believed job security and brighter prospects beckoned when he received the company’s “blue badge” making him staff.

Hidalgo, 35, was convinced the mandatory overtime and 60-hour weeks had been worth it as he became a fully-fledged Amazon employee – but within weeks he was fired when a stomach bug meant more bathroom breaks and less time on the warehouse floor.