Amazon has become embroiled in controversy over its recent handling of news reports that its delivery employees are treated so poorly that they need to urinate in bottles to meet targets. Its official Twitter account set about dispelling the reports, but the manner in which it did so raised eyebrows.
“These tweets are unnecessarily antagonistic (risking Amazon’s brand), and may be the result of unauthorized access,” reads a help ticket to employees. Amazon employees expressed outrage at the company’s decision to close its employees’ inventory, saying it was an attempt at union agitation by preventing workers from finding the contact details of their colleagues in the run-up to the widely anticipated union vote.
The provocative tweets listed in the report include a message insisting that no one would work for Amazon if drivers had to use bottles of urine; and an answer to US Senator Elizabeth Warren, saying, “You make the laws … we just followed them”; and several abrupt responses to a critical article in The Guardian.
According to Recode, the tweets were the result of a request of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who recently expressed disappointment to Amazon officials that the company was not fighting the criticism it considered misleading.