Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, call center workers in the Philippines who are contracters for Amazon’s Ring home security division have been required to report to the office.
At first, employees said, they had no choice but to sleep at work so they could respond to the calls of Amazon Ring’s customers in American time zones. The conditions spurred an Amazon investigation after pictures of employees on mattresses and blankets on the floor became public in news reports. So the contractor, Paris-based Teleperformance, pledged to make improvements.
But six months after the original complaints surfaced and Teleperformance promised to make changes, four workers at Amazon’s call center in Cebu City in the Philippines, who shared their stories with NBC News, said their work conditions have only gotten worse. The workers asked to remain anonymous because they fear losing their jobs and being forced to pay fines for breaching confidentiality agreements equivalent to two years of their annual salaries.
