COVID-19 | Staff share concerns over Amazon's automated HR system

Numerous outlets have reported that ecommerce giant Amazon has faced an influx of technical issues after its automated HR systems have been found struggling, due to the high increase of sick leave and backpay requests as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

According to the Daily Mail, an investigation carried out by Bloomberg discovered that some of the company’s workers, many of which have been hit by the pandemic, have been restricted from interfacing with the firm’s heavily automated human resources division.

The report claimed that, instead of dealing with human employees, workers had in fact been delayed for hours on the phone and had to deal with chatbots designed to fulfil requests automatically.

As part of the investigation, Bloomberg interviewed six employees who work in warehouses from Indiana to New Jersey. It went on to reveal that Amazon’s automation was wrongfully initiating termination proceedings on some staff members who are sick or who were recovering from COVID-19 for allegedly missing some shifts.