The American tech company has been accused of not paying tips from its couriers. The lawsuit will be settled for more than $ 60 million.
US e-commerce company Amazon has agreed to pay $ 61.7 million to settle a lawsuit, US consumer protection agency FTC announced Tuesday. Many independent deliverers claim that they have not been paid their tips.
Amazon has withheld tips from delivery people for more than two and a half years, according to the complaint. These are independent employees who were registered through the Amazon Flex program, a system in which drivers are paid per time slot of a few hours. The Flex drivers use their own car for this and are responsible for the expenses they incur.
Instead of paying out the tips consumers gave drivers in full, as Amazon promised, the company kept the money for itself.
According to the FTC’s complaint, the e-commerce giant told those Flex drivers that they would be paid between $ 18 and $ 25 an hour. In addition, Amazon promised that drivers could keep “100 percent of the tips” they received from customers.
Deficiency
But the FTC’s complaint shows that Amazon switched to a lower hourly rate in late 2016, without notifying drivers, and the company began using the tips to make up for the shortfall. The FTC says it has received ‘hundreds’ of complaints from delivery personnel. “Instead of paying out the tips consumers gave drivers in full, as Amazon promised, the company kept the money to itself,” said Daniel Kaufman, the FTC’s director.
The settlement “allows Amazon to return the tens of millions of dollars it has misappropriated to its drivers, and requires the company to seek permission from drivers before changing its tipping management in the future.”