A group of drivers hired in Spain and brought to the UK to deliver Amazon packages to British households in the run-up to Christmas are taking legal action against the company and one of its subcontractors.
The drivers claim the subcontractor promised them earnings of more than £100 a day, free housing, van rental, insurance and free return flights via an online meeting in Spanish.
Once they arrived in the UK, the workers received four days of training at Amazon facilities, but within a few weeks of beginning work not all the money they claim was promised had arrived.
Some of the drivers say they were not paid in full, and in some cases billed thousands of pounds for vehicle damage after their contracts ended, leaving several in debt. While they accept there was vehicle damage, they believe the fees charged to be exorbitant.
The drivers are now taking legal action against the subcontractor, One Motion, for the docked wages and compensation in a group tribunal claim. They say in their claim that consent for the charges was not “validly obtained”, as the terms and conditions for the subcontractor agreement were told to the drivers after they had signed. Amazon is named as a respondent in the claim.
The drivers are being supported by the United Voices of the World (UVW) union in the claim. A spokesperson for UVW said the deductions were exorbitant and that nearly all workers in the claim “experienced this deduction strategy”.
The spokesperson added: “One Motion continues to send debt collection agencies to hound these workers to pay these erroneous debts, threatening their credit scores and financial wellbeing.”
One Motion said: “Each driver named by United Voices of the World received remuneration of at least £100 per day for each day on which services were provided after any relevant deductions were applied for vehicle rental charges and/or accommodation costs.”
One of the drivers on the claim, José Manuel Elá Asángono, said not only did One Motion not pay him in full but it now said he owed it money. “After working for five weeks for them, they only paid me £200 out of the agreed £3,100 and they are saying I owe them £5,500,” he said. “I just want us to be paid back the money we are owed and for this not to happen to anyone else.”
Diego Martin Baglietto says he noticed he had received only £450 by the 25th day he had worked after being told pay would be weekly. Baglietto and five other drivers shared accommodation with a man known only as Wilson, according to the claim.
The drivers claim that because of an incident when Wilson was unable to move his van and was told he had to pay for recovery, another driver, José María Moreno López, asked One Motion management to see the vehicle insurance policy.
López was then told to leave the accommodation and England, while the others, according to the claim, continued working for fear of losing their accommodation, going home with docked wages and without a return flight to Spain.
UVW claims the events are an automatic confirmation of unfair dismissal.
The drivers said they were registered as self-employed, paid weekly and told they would only need to take care of their own food. UVW contends that the drivers were classified as subcontractors operating on a self-employed basis, but because of the nature of their relationship with One Motion they should have been classed as workers, according to the Employment Rights Act 1996.
The union say One Motion delayed the drivers’ pay, with large sums left unpaid, and once the workers were sent back to Spain they were charged for van rental, minor damage to the vans and cleaning of their lodgings, as well as administrative fees – described as excessive by the union – to process driving fines.
One Motion denies the allegations, saying their position was that the drivers were correctly classified as subcontractors operating on a self-employed basis.
A spokesperson said: “Where the net amount paid to the driver differed to the gross as a result of damage caused to a vehicle and/or fines or penalty notices issued these costs were clearly communicated to each driver and all have also now been communicated to UVW, including a detailed third-party report providing a costing of any damage caused to a vehicle.
“Of the 14 drivers represented by UVW, three incurred no additional charges relating to damages to a vehicle owing to the fact that vehicles were returned in the same condition as which they had been issued.
“The remaining 11 were engaged for a period of between four and six weeks and a total of £22,053 of damage was caused to the vehicles issued. The majority of these vehicles were supplied to us by third parties and returned to those third-party suppliers shortly after Christmas. This means that we, as a business, directly incurred these costs/losses for the damage caused by the drivers responsible for these vehicles.”
Amazon denied it was involved in any wrongdoing and said it was committed to fair treatment for those employed by its subcontractors. “We are committed to ensuring that the people contracted by our independent delivery providers are fairly compensated and treated with respect. We have been made aware of the issue and are investigating,” it said.
Amazon made almost £27bn in delivery sales in the UK alone, and One Motion Logistics Ltd reported £90m revenue across operations in the UK, Spain and Germany.
