‘You feel like you’re in prison’: workers claim Amazon’s surveillance violates labor law

Amazon has been accused of using "intrusive algorithms" as part of a sweeping surveillance program to monitor and deter union organizing activities.

Workers at a warehouse run by the technology giant on the outskirts of St Louis, Missouri, are today filing an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

A copy of the charge, seen by the Guardian, alleges that Amazon has "maintained intrusive algorithms and other workplace controls and surveillance which interfere with Section 7 rights of employees to engage in protected concerted activity".

There have been several reports of Amazon surveilling workers over union organizing and activism, including human resources monitoring employee message boards, software to track union threats and job listings for intelligence analysts to monitor "labor organizing threats".

"Us coming together to file this charge will hold Amazon accountable. We don't want this becoming the norm," Wendy Taylor, a packer at Amazon's STL8 fulfillment center in Saint Peters, Missouri, since August 2020 and an organizing committee member, said in an interview. "It's out of control.

"We have an injury crisis and we're being watched and you feel like you're in prison. We just want people to know we have a right to organize, the right to form a union and the right to have a safer work environment."

Eileen Hards, an Amazon spokesperson, said: "To be clear, there's been no finding of unlawful activity by the NLRB. The fact is this charge, which was just filed, has yet to be investigated or proven."