Tag Archives: amazon

Policy responses to the Amazon fires – a longer read for the weekend

By Rupinder Singh | Sat 24th August 2019 - 2:00 pm

President Macron, the UN Secretary General, London mayor Sadiq Khan and even Cristiano Renaldo have all chipped in over the last 24 hours with concern about the situation where 1/5th of the Earth’s oxygen source is located and Sao Paulo is covered in a blanket of smoke and across half of Brazil. How big is the problem, what are the implications and how do we incentivise and assist Brazil?

The figure above, from the BBC website, shows the increasing trend which feeds into the wider global concern about global warming and the resultant thawing of the Arctic, melting of glaciers such as that in the Hindu Khush that feeds 1 in 3 of the global population and the extreme weather events from heavy rains that cause flooding (from England to the current woes affecting the Indian sub-continent) and intense summer heat and often more intense winters. And witness the spate of Artic fires this year from Alaska to the Russian far north.

The immediate impact of climate change is evident across much of the world – even if not accepted by naysayers – and most pressingly by the developing world, countries without either the budgetary resources or the institutional structures in place to put together cohesive long-term stabilisation strategies in place to deal with the immediate emergency and humanitarian crises following fires and floods.

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged brazil | 6 Comments

How the Lib Dems can reach out to lower paid voters ignored by the Labour leadership

By Chris Key | Mon 12th December 2016 - 4:35 pm

Embed from Getty Images

This year’s revelations about Amazon and Sports Direct’s business practices have shown that even though we are in the year 2016 some companies still behave as if we were still in the Victorian age. As the Labour party drifts into an ocean of hard left anti-business irrelevance we in the Liberal Democrats have an opportunity to speak up for a better way forward.

In the area of low pay, many companies especially in the retail sector have taken advantage of the introduction of the living wage to chip away at other benefits. Take the example of Cafe Nero which took away the free panini from staff in response to the Living Wage.

Paying staff properly so that they do not have to take second jobs is good business sense. Making work pay reduces staff turnover and consequently recruitment costs as Costco found out in the US a few years ago.

We as a party should be calling for an expansion of the teams involved in enforcing regulations on pay and calling out companies who act in this way.

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged john lewis and sports direct | 22 Comments

Willie Rennie: Amazon must change its ways

By The Voice | Sun 11th December 2016 - 1:16 pm

Back in January, Willie Rennie called out both Amazon and Nicola Sturgeon over low wages and poor working conditions at the company’s Dunfermline depot. A couple of months later, he found himself banned from the premises after Amazon management cancelled a planned meeting with workers to discuss the issues.

Things haven’t got any better for the beleaguered employees at the depot. This week, the Courier revealed that some seasonal workers were sleeping out in tents in this weather to save the costs of commuting to and from the depot.

Then an undercover reporter working for the Sunday Times (£) wrote about her experience of working there:

In one case, a woman who spent three days in hospital with a kidney infection was docked two points, reduced to one on appeal, despite providing a hospital note.

And:

Posted in News | Also tagged Scotland and willie rennie | 11 Comments

Willie Rennie banned from discussing working conditions with Amazon employees

By The Voice | Mon 21st March 2016 - 10:35 am

Willie Rennie, Leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, has been banned from meeting staff at Amazon’s base in Dunfermline today. He was planning to meet staff there to discuss their working conditions, but the meeting was cancelled at the last minute by Amazon bosses in London.

Willie is campaigning to stop the Scottish Government from giving hand-outs to companies which do not pay their staff at least at the Scottish Living Wage rate of £8.25 an hour. Under the current arrangements, over £5 million has been paid to Amazon in Scotland even though the company is only paying staff £7.20 an hour.

Posted in News | Also tagged willie rennie | 9 Comments

Willie Rennie takes on Sturgeon and Amazon over low wages and poor working conditions

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 24th January 2016 - 4:20 pm

Willie Rennie has gained the backing of the Scottish Trades Union Congress for is stance on low wages and poor working conditions at Amazon’s depot in his Fife constituency. He’s also challenged Nicola Sturgeon over massive grants paid to the giant company when they treat their employees so badly.

From the Sunday Mail:

But Rennie said Amazon shouldn’t receive any more money until they increases employees’ pay to the “living wage” of £8.25 an hour – deemed to be the minimum income necessary for workers to meet their basic needs.

The Scottish Lib Dems leader said: “The slipshod manner in which the Government have handled Amazon is embarrassing.

“The SNP have paid them millions of pounds in grants, even though they have been avoiding tax and paying workers low wages.

There is little point in Roseanna Cunningham visiting Amazon now unless she gets them to pay more tax and pay higher wages.

Posted in News and Op-eds | Also tagged low pay, willie rennie and working conditions | 5 Comments

Opinion: Avoid the Tax Avoiders!

By Kirsten de Keyser | Tue 11th December 2012 - 2:39 pm

On 15th October last, Liberal Democrat Voice published my splutteringly crimson outburst about multinational corporation tax avoiders Opinion: Calling All Bloggers – Don’t make me a tax avoidance accomplice.

Back then, I pleaded that an ongoing media debate would hopefully, at last, provide the oxygen needed to bring about some serious action in respect of corporate tax collecting: “…the media at least seems to be smelling blood. I hope they see this through to some sort of conclusion.”

And didn’t they do well?

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged tax avoidance | 43 Comments

Opinion: Calling All Bloggers – Don’t make me a tax avoidance accomplice

By Kirsten de Keyser | Mon 15th October 2012 - 3:23 pm

According to Vince Cable “No one keeps their cash in tax havens for the quality of investment advice; these are sunny places for shady people.” True to form, Vince hit the nail squarely on its head with a whammy of a quote, and how we all clapped enthusiastically. But who actually piles the cash into these rogues’ coffers in the first place? It could be you.

Many of our enthusiastic clappers routinely rock up outside Boots, on a sunny Saturday, aggressively jabbing angry posters-on-sticks skywards, in tandem with chants of

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged facebook, tax avoidance and vodafone | 17 Comments