With holiday shopping madness around the corner, Amazon is beefing up its staffing, and announced plans this week to hire 30,000 seasonal workers at its distribution centers in California.
The effort is part of a broader hiring push by the e-commerce giant to add 250,000 full-time, part-time and seasonal roles across the United States.
The California jobs will include as many as 3,000 openings across Los Angeles, Long Beach and Anaheim, and 8,000 across Riverside, San Bernardino and Ontario, the company said.
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Amazon said many of its seasonal roles could transition into year-round employment with benefits.
“Seasonal Amazon jobs offer competitive pay, flexible schedules, and the opportunity to be part of the bustling retail industry during its busiest time of year,” the company said in its news release about the hiring effort.
Amazon spokesperson Carly Levy said regular full- and part-time employees earn an average of $23 per hour with benefits, and seasonal employees, who don’t receive benefits, earn about $19 per hour on average.
Levy said the number of seasonal positions that are converted to permanent positions will depend on the company’s operational needs in the coming months.
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Experts and labor advocates have said seasonal and other warehouse work at Amazon can be difficult and physically demanding, with increased risks during peak seasons because of a flood of new, inexperienced workers as well as higher pressure to meet quotas.
“You get a lot of people who aren’t career shipping and receiving people picking up seasonal work,” said Bilal Kassem, an attorney and co-founder of Oakland-based firm Pacific Workers. “People who aren’t used to doing the work are more likely to get injured.”
Kassem suggests that new workers acquaint themselves with safety guidelines, and ensure they have proper channels to express concerns.
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Sheheryar Kaoosji, executive director at the Warehouse Worker Resource Center, a nonprofit that advocates for warehouse workers, said people take work at Amazon over the holidays hoping it will turn into a permanent position — but very soon after Christmas and New Year’s, many are let go. He said workers complain that there’s not a clear process or path to permanent employment.
“It’s very arbitrary,” Kaoosji said. “Sometimes we talk to workers who have been seasonal employees for multiple years and don’t get let on, and other people come in for the first time and are offered permanent employment.”
In Amazon parlance, seasonal employees are referred to as “white badges,” while part- and full-time employees are “blue badges.”
Levy, the Amazon spokeperson, said seasonal workers receive the same onboarding and training that blue-badge employees receive, and that they can apply for any permanent positions open at any time during their employment. The company has said injury rates in its facilities have improved significantly and that it continues to invest in safety throughout its operations.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
