Staff Shortages - Amazon Offers £1,000 Joining Bonus for New Warehouse Staff
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There have been lots of headlines recently regarding staff shortages eg.
Fruit picker shortage spreads to Christmas workers. It seems that migrant fruit pockets move on to Christmas work, but shortages are due to many returning home and being unable to a get a visa.
To attract staff Amazon are offering a joining bonus, do you think other companies will follow suit ?
It doesn't say, but it says the hourly rate has gone up to £11.10 
I assume there must have a time limit like 6 or 12 months before you get the £.
Surprised they are not looking for any experience
I think some companies are going to have to offer more to get the staff they need. Its a bonus for the staff - but of course someone has to pay for it - and that will be the customers at the end of the day.
I think Amazon can well afford to pay a decent wage to their employees, as can many of these large companies! They record huge profits year on year and pay very little tax.
Many farmers paid below minimum wage to fruit pickers who used to live in shared caravans or in sheds on the farm - often with poor facilities. They can’t recruit non migrant workers as indigenous people won’t work for the pay and conditions on offer!
gerrykelly25 I agree they can afford to pay them more - but they will claw that back, and its the smaller companies that will struggle to pay more without putting their prices up - sending more people to the likes of Amazon...
The farmers issue is an interesting one - you are right in that we dont want to do those jobs, yet at the very same time we vote for brexit to because we don't like them coming over here and doing the jobs we dont want to do, then we complain where there is no fruit in the shops....
Don't really understand why everyone is so short of staff, where has everyone gone?
Shops & Hospitality, delivery drivers, lorry drivers, bus drivers, my local garage is short on three mechanics and can't recruit any , even the Post office in town was down to two counters out of seven ( normally only 4-5 open thou) yesterday due to shortage of staff and to be honest I don't live in an area that was really reliant on foreign workers in the past anyway.
Part of the reason that there is a shortage of drivers is that during the pandemic those wanting to qualify as drivers haven't been able to do so, so no replacement for those retiring. As said this is only part of the reason.
Ann1984 You would think they would jump at the chance to recruit a qualified driver if they were that short . The other thing I'm hearing thou is the rates that some of these companies are advertising is not what they end up paying , I know a person that saw a HGV job advertised at £38000 which he thought was good, turned out to be £38000 but that figure included nights away, a shift allowance and overtime in that figure. which wasn't guaranteed.
Mango4 yeah night allowance most companies pay 20 pounds but that doesn’t cover parking in a car park my other other won’t do nights away no more because pay was being eaten in car park shower he used to trump which was 4 nights away. He could even fix truck side of road if needed instead of waiting for recovery which again goes into hours. We thinking it’s an excuse by government for people to buy now not Christmas time they just scaring
It doesn't help that Amazon have a very bad reputation on how they treat their warehouse staff. There have been lots of articles on bad working conditions that predate Brexit and the pandemic. For example, a few years ago there were articles about staff being subjected to timed toilet breaks or some resorting to urinating in plastic bottles to meet hourly targets. Things get even worse over Black Friday and the festive period.
I have read this about the drivers too and always accept my parcels whilst trying not to touch them very much and it's another reason that I don't eat anything from vans in lay-bys - no toilets! 
Anyone able to offer my dad a recommendation and let me know how to get an application form please
Sadly a lot of friends had to go back home as they lost their jobs due to COVID and didn’t want to claim benefits because it’s humiliating for them.Two couples got sow stressed with brexit and the feeling of not being welcome, that they decided to leave.A few of them said that the racial jokes at their work place was unbearable and people wouldn’t stop even when told to.The money they were getting wasn’t enough to pay for the damage caused by degrading jokes and they rather get paid less at home than enduring the situation.To be honest they were very hard working people who would work two jobs to be able to afford living in the uk, and paid a lot in taxes due to having two jobs.
I am not trying to offend or disrespect anyone, it’s just what I was told by some friends whose latest years in the uk were a bit hard, I do understand that most people are very welcoming and well educated and this is only a small number of people, that in my opinion don’t seem to understand What Brexit is.
That is so sad, I know that recently my illustration that Britain was a tolerant country has been blown out of the water!
You wrongly assume people have the same values has your own
Also something beginning with B caused them go home. I feel sorry for your friends they shouldn't have to receive that from anyone. Sadly a percentage of folks in Britain think they are entitled and superior to other folks and still think the British Empire still rules the world.
Tesco offering same thing. The need delivery drivers if start before end of September get £1000 bonus. If anyone interested in that.
Maybe if they offered decent guaranteed wages and good working conditions instead of a one off bonus then people might be interested but that's not going to happen as the last thing that can be affected is the profit margin.
Amazon must be getting really desperate. They are now offering staff in some locations a £50 weekly bonus just for turning up to work on time, if they have a 100% attendance record -
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