Amazon set to ban ‘union’ phrases on employee messaging platform
Amazon is reportedly in talks to ban the word “union” and other key words from its internal staff messaging app following a tirade of unionising calls.
As reported by the Intercept, the list of banned words includes “union”, “fire”, “compensation”, “plantation”, “slave labor”, “diversity”, “robots”, “grievance” and “injustice”.
The messaging app, which acts as an internal social media for Amazon workers and is set to launch in the coming months, looks to boost employee satisfaction.
“With free text, we risk people writing Shout-Outs that generate negative sentiments among the viewers and the receivers,” an Amazon document on the programme states.
“We want to lean towards being restrictive on the content that can be posted to prevent a negative associate experience.”
A spokesperson from Amazon told the Guardian that the app would only restrict terms that are “offensive or harassing”.
However, the news comes as Amazon warehouse workers in New York formed a union earlier this week.
The Amazon Labor Union has since demanded that the retailer respect workers’ rights to union representation during disciplinary meetings, a letter posted by the group said.
Amazon spokeswoman Barbara Agrait told City PM:“Our teams are always thinking about new ways to help employees engage with each other. This particular program has not been approved yet and may change significantly or even never launch at all. If it does launch at some point down the road, there are no plans for many of the words called out to be screened. The only kinds of words that may be screened are ones that are offensive or harassing, which is intended to protect our team.”