Amazon is creating 150 new jobs at its delivery hub in Croydon, in response to the increased demand for its services since the coronavirus lockdown began.
Amazon is recruiting staff ahead of the Christmas rush
The jobs at the Croydon depot, just off the Purley Way, are described by Amazon as “seasonal roles”, being recruited in the run-up to Christmas, and are part of 10,000 jobs being created by the business in Britain this year, increasing its workforce by 25 per cent.
Pay starts at a minimum of £10.50 per hour in London for all full-time, part-time, temporary and seasonal roles.
Amazon is looking to recruit more than delivery drivers: the new roles include engineers, graduates, HR and IT professionals, health and safety and finance specialists, as well as the teams who will pick, pack and ship customer orders.
Many of the people recruited during the height of the covid-19 pandemic are now being offered the opportunity to transition into a permanent role with the potential for a career within Amazon.
In addition, Amazon has recruited more than 700 apprentices during 2020, in fields ranging from automation engineering and IT to digital marketing and fashion buyers, with pay of up to £30,000 a year for degree-level apprenticeships.
Around 150 new jobs are expected to be created in Croydon
Employees are offered a comprehensive benefits package, including private medical insurance, life assurance, income protection, subsidised meals and a staff discount – which combined are worth more than £700 annually – as well as a company pension plan.
Amazon’s Stefano Perego said, “Our people have played a critical role in serving customers in these unprecedented times and the new roles will help us continue to meet customer demand and support small and medium-sized businesses selling on Amazon.
Amazon has invested more than £18billion in its UK operations since 2010, while helping digitally to empower more than 373,000 small businesses and content creators.
People interested in applying for both permanent and seasonal roles at Amazon should visit www.amazonjobs.co.uk.
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This good news for potential employees and Croydon would be even better for the UK as a whole if Amazon were seem to be paying a fair amount of tax on its UK-generated income.
According to an investigation by the Daily Mirror in 2019, Amazon paid a total of £61.7 million in corporation tax over the past 20 years, despite making a total UK turnover of around £7 billion.
This compares to the tax payment made for just one year (2017-18) by UK retailers M&S, which paid £65.4 million corporation tax, Tesco £176 million, Dixons Carphone £42 million and John Lewis £43 million. (source– Retail Gazette, 1st Feb A 2019 )
Amazon states that it has invested massive amounts in new premises and plant in the UK, and that its rate bill is likewise enormous. Fair enough, investment like this costs a king’s ransom.
And, to be fair, other companies like Starbucks and Google are similarly good at minimising their UK Tax bill.
However, Tescos and the other supermarkets continue to invest in new premises and refurbishment of old.
Are these UK companies being forced to play on another UK tax playing field, where the fees are much higher than on the pitch afforded certain US- now International – companies?
One wonders if post-Brexit, post-Covid UK Governments will be cash strapped and forced to get more from such companies which are past and present masters in the art of tax-minimisation within the rules.
It’s not Amazon’s fault. It’s down to Governments. They set the rules. Companies operate within the frameworks set by Governments all around the World, but it’s easy to bash them as they are an easy target.
The meteoric rise of Amazon, is mirrored by the sad and continuing decline of traditional high street retailers. Clearly the time has come for the government to find equitable solutions to level the playing field, and recoup monies spent on preserving jobs etc with new online taxes.
Taxing online sales will just raise prices for the consumer. Who wants to go to the high street these days? Queuing to get into the shops (just wait until November when you have to queue in the cold and rain) wearing masks, getting ripped off to park the car etc, etc. The alternative is to sit at at home in the warm, a few clicks of the mouse and your stuff is delivered next day
I fear that we will end up as neurotic, sociallyfearful and overweight, under-exercised human cage birds and that town centres like Croydon will become deserted, Clockwork Orange type environments if we all go down the stay at home/ get everything delivered route.
Having said that, to overcome at least some of the points made in the above responses, we really need town centres to be attractive environments with excellent access and comfort for people to get there by bus, train, car and bike. Investing in the way streets look, investing in street cleaning, and clean public loos that really work , properly heated and ventilated buses, and real-time arrival information on every bus stop. That does make town centres more attractive and “liveable”.
Do we rely on ‘laissez faire’, market forces –a Darwinian process– to cut the high street down to size? OK, the retail world has always changed, sometime very quickly, and mail order has existed since Victorian times, and maybe before. So what?
The massive growth of on-line sales, drive-in-easy shopping centres like Bluewater and areas like Purkey Way– and now COVID, create a treble-whammy for the town centre retailers.
If the retailers die out, who is going to pay the tax bills, and why should one high street AND on-line retailer like M and S pay more tax than Amazon or the like? That’s not Amazon-bashing, it is reality and fairness.
Who is going to pay for improving the Town and City centres, to prevent them falling into decay, just like the big American city centres like Detroit? And who is going to enliven them ?
The answer has to be–Me–you– Amazon, M and S. Plus of course, more people living in the cnetre, to bring life and activity while suburbanites stay at home, living on line.
It’s a question of balance. That is the perennial political conundrum. But someone has to work out a balanced system of taxation– purchase tax, personal tax, corporation tax.
My son worked for Amazon they treat him like dirt got rid of him by text message he was a new starter working on his own never gave him a chance