As per the announcement of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Amazon will pay $60 million to flex drivers in the form of tips, which were withheld by the Company between 2016 and 2019. The flex drivers work with Amazon Logistics to help deliver groceries and goods through Amazon platforms, such as Prime Now and Amazon Fresh. The flex drivers were hired by Amazon on an hourly wage of $18 to $22.
As part of the deal, the drivers were to be paid as per their hourly wages and 100 per cent of the tips earned was to be given to the drivers. However, after a while, Amazon deflected from its promise and started cutting the tips earned and kept it for themselves as per FTC.
Amazon has agreed to pay for the unpaid tips to the drivers. About 1,40,000 drivers will be paid $60 million. As per FTC, on an average, each employee will get about $422. The highest amount paid to a single driver will be $28,000. More than 19,000 drivers will receive $600.
The cheques which will be paid out to the drivers will have to be encashed before January 7, 2022.
Amazon Flex is an arm of Amazon’s delivery operations that contracts individual drivers to deliver packages from their own vehicles. It is different to Amazon’s Delivery Service Partner (DSP) programme, which contracts small delivery companies to deliver packages for the retail giant.