Despite the fear of losing their jobs, hundreds of Amazon employees violated the e-commerce giant’s communication policy and openly criticized the company for its impact on the environment.
On Sunday, more than 300 employees of the online retail giant signed their names and job titles to statements on blog post on Medium.
The move comes after members of ‘Amazon Employees For Climate Justice’ provided their quotes (with names) to a media organization, which was later followed by issuance of letters to each employee in which the company had threatened them to fire if they continued to speak to the press.
‘Amazon Employees For Climate Justice’ is a group that is concerned about company’s contribution to carbon footprint and its business with oil and gas industry.
These employees openly criticized Amazon’s record on climate change despite what they say is a company policy that puts their jobs at risk for speaking out.
Meanwhile, Amazon said that its policy on external communications is not new and is in keeping with other large companies.
It further added that its police not directed at any specific group.
“While all employees are welcome to engage constructively with any of the many teams inside Amazon that work on sustainability and other topics, we do enforce our external communications policy and will not allow employees to publicly disparage or misrepresent the company or the hard work of their colleagues who are developing solutions to these hard problems,” according to an Amazon spokesperson.
Amazon, which relies on fossil fuels to power the planes, trucks and vans that ship packages all over the world, has an enormous carbon footprint. And its workers have been vocal in criticising some of the company’s practices.
Whereas, claims that it is passionate about climate change issues and has already pledged to become net-zero carbon by 2040 and use 100 per cent renewable energy by 2030.
Last year, more than 8,000 staffers signed an open letter to CEO and founder Jeff Bezos demanding that Amazon cut its carbon emissions, end its use of fossil fuels and stop its work with oil companies that use Amazon’s technology to locate fossil fuel deposits.
(With input from agencies)