After backlash, Amazon inaugurates first resting point for delivery workers in India

After being repeatedly slammed for poor working conditions for gig workers, Amazon India has opened its first rest point for delivery executives that is equipped with drinking water, air conditioning, seating area and mobile charging points.

The facility was inaugurated in the northIndian city of Gurugram over the weekend and will be open to all delivery workers, and not just those in Amazon's fleet.

The American company is now planning to set up a network of rest points, called 'Ashray centres', acrossmajor cities such as Delhi NCR, Bengaluru, and Mumbai.

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"Each Ashray centre can accommodate 15 people at a time and will be operational throughout the year from 9 am to 9 pm. The facility's usage will be free and limited to 30 minutes per visit," Amazon said in a statement.

"Parking spaces will also be provided for delivery associates. Amazon will undertake multiple initiatives to create awareness about these rest points among delivery associates."

Abhinav Singh,the company’s vice president, operations said the decision to launch the resting points was taken as the weather conditions had become extreme.

“It’s one of those things that just happened now. Ideally, everything could have happened 10 years ago,Summers now are harsher than they used to be three to four or five years ago… The level of humidity is higher,"Singhwas quoted as saying by The Indian Express.

“The aim is to make sure that before the summer months set in, all cities which have high humidity or heat, and where we have a significant amount of presence in terms of a network of points should have resting points like this,” he added.

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Amazon accused of violating workers' rights

Earlier this year, media reports claimed that a group of employees at Amazon's Manesar warehouse were forced to take an oath under which they would not take toilet or water breaks until their target was achieved.

After the controversy snowballed, the Labour Ministry wrote a letter to Amazon and sought a response to the alleged incident.

The Jeff Bezos-owned company conceded that such an oath was taken but attempted to water down the incident saying it was meant to be a motivational exercise.

"The employee thought of the pledge as a motivational exercise. This was an unfortunate and isolated incident and a clear violation of our workplace standards,"Amazon said in response.

Prior to Amazon, food delivery giant Zomato has been operating such facilities across the country.

(With inputs from agencies)