By Keith Regan E-Commerce Times
02/02/01 10:24 AM PT
Laid-off hourly employees at Amazon have been told that they can cross out
the non-disparagement clause in the agreement, but corporate staff must sign it.
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With pressure building from union organizers and with a potential public relations
blunder at hand, Amazon.com told laid-off
hourly employees Thursday that they would not have to pledge to keep quiet
about the company in order to receive a better severance deal.
The
change of policy was announced to workers in an e-mail Thursday.
The non-disparagement clause is in a 15-page
agreement that 1,300 laid-off Amazon employees were
asked to sign in order to qualify for an augmented severance
package that includes extra pay and a US$500 bonus.
"We'd have been very unlikely to enforce this provision
anyway, so it doesn't make sense to ask you to sign it,"
Amazon vice president Bill Price said in the e-mail .
Amazon spokeswoman Patty Smith told the E-Commerce
Times the decision came after employees raised questions,
and was not due to efforts by the Washington Alliance of
Technical Workers, known as WashTech, to use the clause
as leverage in its long-standing bid to organize customer
service workers at the Seattle, Washington e-tailer.
"Our employees were raising concerns directly to us," Smith said.
"We listened and we acted accordingly."
Hourly Workers Exempt
Hourly employees have been told they can cross out the
non-disparagement clause in the agreement, which
includes non-competition and confidentiality pledges.
However, corporate staff still must sign the agreement in order
to get a better severance deal.
The layoffs at Amazon, announced
as the company warned that sales would slow but that
profitability is now within sight, have become a flashpoint for union activists.
WashTech earlier called for a formal investigation
into why the cuts were aimed at the customer service department,
where 400 workers have been the focus of a union drive,
called Day2, for nearly three years.
Focus on Profits
The e-tail giant is in the midst of a massive restructuring
of its business as it looks to reach profitability
by the end of the year.
In addition to the
layoffs, Amazon chief executive officer Jeff Bezos
has reportedly sent an internal, company-wide e-mail to
employees describing a strategy to stop selling products
that are not profitable, according to published reports.
Bezo also told employees that the company is going to
work on boosting its core book business, reports said.
Unions Gain Momentum
Meanwhile, union organizing activity is heating on other
fronts within the dot-com world, with some efforts apparently
getting a boost from the frenzied pace of layoffs in recent months.
A San Francisco, California union has now dropped both of its
unfair labor practices complaints against Etown.com and its
parent, Collaborative Media, Inc. A vote on whether to
establish a union at the company will now proceed. The vote had been
delayed by charges
that Etown had acted unfairly in suggesting
that unionizing the shop would harm its business
and possibly force the company to shut down.
Other unions are making charges that
Webvan Group is frustrating
their attempts to organize workers.
The Teamsters and the United Food and Commercial Workers
filed a National Labor Relations Board grievance this week,
charging that Webvan illegally restricts organizing activities. At
issue are personnel policies prohibiting employees from wearing
pro-union buttons and restricting their ability to communicate and
hold union meetings.
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