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Comment by nonfamous | Hacker News Reader

> [contract delivery companies] have to adhere to a strict set of rules from Amazon around hiring, pay, delivery times and routes, and more.

The only one of these that Amazon has any right to dictate is delivery times (and what they will pay for that delivery). The fact that Amazon has direct control over the contractor’s worker’s pay, and even the ability to fire those workers, is very shocking to me.

Remember, this isn’t a situation like Uber: these are not contractors to Amazon, but employees of independent delivery companies.

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Are these the same drivers that wear Amazon vests, drive Amazon cars and can only deliver for Amazon? Seems like Amazon is doing some legal loophole with "3rd party" companies to get around actually employing these drivers and giving them the full time benefits they are entitled to by law

I'm so tired of this dumb gig economy that isn't long term sustainable.

That's not even gig economy, it's just cutting employee benefits and rights by pretending they're contractors. Same thing uber does, it seems.

The gig economy is good in theory - being able to work a few extra hours freelance when you need some extra cash, but giant scummy companies are trying to pretend that this is what they offer in order to screw over their full time employees.

This isn't a new loophole, though. Major US airlines do the same thing with regional carriers. If you live in the US, you've probably been on a SkyWest flight and not known it. The big difference is SkyWest is regional (they're not on the East Coast), and they contract with America, Delta, and United, so they actually have some leverage.

The drivers are W2 employees who work for the delivery companies. The delivery companies pay hourly plus benefits. Amazon’s contract is with the delivery company.

This isn’t a gig economy thing and there are no contractors / 1099.

Two businesses can put whatever contract provisions into their agreement that they want to as long as laws aren’t being broken.

Amazon probably does not dictate pay directly. They just put in the contract that all workers must make X and get health insurance.

Apparently they do, and it includes the power to lower pay:

> In April, Amazon announced it would reduce the amount it paid for drivers from $17.25 to $16.00 an hour, according to the letter.

When what Amazon pays doesn’t cover the statutory minimums, the contract delivery companies have to make up the difference.

But is that a case of them dictating pay or just changing the formula for how they pay delivery companies?

If I tell IBM that I am not paying $100 an hour for their crappy consultants and will only pay $20, I still don't employ their consultant.

> In April, Amazon announced it would reduce the amount it paid for drivers from $17.25 to $16.00 an hour, according to the letter. This meant Amazon delivery companies were paying even more for drivers' wages.

To me, it just seems to be a reimbursement rate, not what the driver actually makes.

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