Until last weekend, I was a huge Amazon fan. Great prices, informative customer reviews, faultless delivery .... How do they do it? I sometimes wondered.

This is how:
From The Times, 14 Dec 2008. Page link (remove spaces): http://www.timesonline.co.uk/ tol/business/industry_sectors/ retailing/article5337770.ece

After your comments, I'll make this shorter:

The staff work seven days a week and are threatened with the sack if they take a day off sick - even with a doctor's note. There is a 6-point penalty system: compulsory dismissal with 6 points. Each day off sick counts for 1 point.

They have to do a compulsory 10½hour overnight shift at the end of a five-day week. The shift runs from Saturday evening to 5am on Sunday, meaning they work every day of the week.

Packing targets are so high (more than 2 items a minute) that even a manager described them as ridiculous. Shelf-pickers walk 14 miles on their shift.

Workers get only one break of 15 minutes and another of 20 minutes per eight-hour shift and have to get permission to go to the toilet.

The pay is £6.80 an hour, but the bus to work costs £8.50 a day.

Obviously Amazon has defended its management practices and many have pointed out that, with a recession on, people should be grateful for any job.

Last year, Amazon's worldwide profits were above £2,200,000,000.

I think they could have knocked a few grand off that to pay for more staff, allowing them to treat their workers like human beings not cut-price robots.

I used to be a big Amazon fan but, now I know how they treat their staff, I won't be adding any more of my money to their huge profits.