Amazon Thought Keeping Flex Drivers’ Tips Was Okay

Amazon, a company worth $1.75 TRILLION, uses normal people to deliver goods from Whole Foods and Amazon Fresh. Amazon calls their program Amazon Flex. It's a near-identical setup to DoorDash and Uber Eats jobs. Normal people use an app for "gig work" and deliver stuff using their own vehicles. Earlier this month Amazon settled a lawsuit with the FTC about pocketing the tips of Flex drivers.

Earlier this year, the FTC sued Amazon for withholding tips in its Flex program between the years 2016 and 2019. Amazon continued to collect portions of the drivers’ tips up until the government filed its lawsuit outlining the alleged illegal behavior in 2019, according to the FTC’s investigation.

“Rather than passing along 100 percent of customers’ tips to drivers, as it had promised to do, Amazon used the money itself,” said Daniel Kaufman, acting director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, in February.

The Verge

Amazon did the same thing DoorDash was caught doing in 2019: lowering their payout and subsidizing that shortfall with customer's tips. When comparing these two, Amazon is the bigger loser because they have so much more money. It defies logic for a company so cash-rich to implement tip theft. However, I am far from surprised. The greed of Amazon, DoorDash, Instacart, and others have no end. If they can skim dollars off the top from people just trying to make ends meet, they'll do it.

Just another example of how doing gig work on any extended basis is a terrible choice.