New Brief Sheds Light on the Amazon’s Dangerous ‘Flex’ Labor Model

NEW YORK — A new brief from the National Employment Law Project finds that Amazon’s Flex program is eroding labor standards in the broader last-mile delivery sector, as drivers face misclassification, digital surveillance, wage theft, inadequate benefits, and mistreatment on the job. The brief is a first-of-its kind deep dive into the company’s program that is made up of subcontracted last-mile delivery workers. 

The brief, Delivering Precarity: How the Amazon Flex Labor Model Harms Workers and What to Do About It, draws on Amazon’s own corporate filings, statements, and contracts, as well as government documents, press reports, research by academics, industry groups, and advocacy organizations. Informed by conversations with Flex drivers organizing in New Jersey, the brief showcases how Amazon has utilized this model to exploit workers, cut corners and shirk responsibility. 

“The Amazon Flex labor model combines tech-enabled micromanagement of work with zero employer accountability for the worker impacts of that control,” said Maya Pinto, senior researcher and policy analyst at NELP and author of the brief. “As Flex drivers in New Jersey and all over the world will tell you, it’s a recipe for worker exploitation. The model needs to be reined in through both enforcement of existing laws and through worker-led public policy change, so that it can’t be scaled up.”

As an industry leader, Amazon sets last-mile delivery standards that other retailers and delivery companies follow. In order to execute on its never-ending push towards “faster than ever” delivery speeds, Amazon has utilized the Flex model to exert high levels of automated control and practices that attempt to strip workers of their rights. With job growth in the last-mile delivery sector expected to outpace that of the overall U.S. workforce in the next decade, more and more corporations, operating in a range of industries from last-mile delivery to nursing, are using labor models like Amazon Flex’s and thereby eroding worker power. 

“As a single mother with a son with disabilities, having a flexible schedule and earning between $25 to $30 an hour seemed like an excellent option. But the schedules are inconsistent, I’m spending my free time looking for [delivery] blocks, and paying all kinds of out-of-pocket expenses that make it hard to make ends meet,” said Ester, a Flex Driver for more than two years at the Amazon Woodland Park, New Jersey, delivery station. “And Amazon has changed the delivery quotas so we have to deliver the same number of packages as before in a shorter amount of time. We have to put our safety to the side because if we don’t finish on time, we aren’t allowed to work anymore. Amazon makes billions on the backs of Flex drivers. It’s time Amazon provides safety and a livable wage to all Flex drivers.”

Key Findings Include: 

• Amazon uses a system of interconnected labor practices—digital surveillance, algorithmic management, independent contractor misclassification, mandatory arbitration, and class action waivers—to maximize the labor value it can extract from Flex delivery drivers and to minimize the responsibility it bears for their job quality.
• That labor model subjects Flex drivers to intolerable and often illegal working conditions, including systematic wage theft, unlivable pay, inadequate benefits, unsafe work speeds, racial discrimination, job insecurity, unpredictable schedules, and a lack of recourse for workplace mistreatment.
• Through Flex and its public policy work, Amazon is eroding labor standards in the broader last-mile delivery sector and beyond.

By labeling its Flex drivers as independent contractors instead of employees, Amazon hinders their access to a host of rights and protections, including the right to organize and bargain collectively, the right to minimum wage and overtime pay, the right to a safe and healthy workplace, the right to paid sick and family leave, discrimination and sexual harassment protections, reimbursement of certain work-related expenses and more. 

The brief concludes with recommendations on how labor allies, policy makers, and government agencies can hold Amazon accountable and help to improve conditions for Flex drivers and workers who face similar challenges. Among these are recommendations to support Flex driver organizing efforts, regulate workplace digital surveillance and algorithmic management, and increase public enforcement and investigation of Amazon’s  independent contractor misclassification of Flex drivers.

“I am committed to my job as a Flex driver and providing a good service, but it is disheartening to know that the automated system could deactivate my account at any time, without warning, just as happened to other members of my family,” said Omary, current Flex Driver at the Amazon Monroe, New Jersey,  delivery station. “Amazon has lined its pockets by cutting our rates, forcing us to work too fast, and making us pay costs that should be its own. But I keep doing Flex to support my family. I’m committed to fighting until all Flex drivers have fair conditions.”

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