The Scottish Government will ask Amazon to pay more workers a living wage amid claims it is "an exceptionally horrible place" to work.
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie said he has been contacted by workers at the online retailer's warehouse in Fife complaining about conditions.
Amazon also told him it pays workers 65p-per-hour less than the Scottish living wage, Mr Rennie revealed at First Minister's Questions.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said she will dispatch Fair Work Secretary Roseanna Cunningham "to engage directly with Amazon ... to get more people paid the living wage".
Ms Sturgeon was mocked by Mr Rennie for initially "mishearing" his question about wages and going on to complain about tax avoidance. Mr Rennie claimed she "finds it difficult to listen to anybody else".
He said: "This week I received a letter from Amazon HQ in London. They boasted that they paid workers £7.20 per hour, even that is well below the national living wage.
"The Scottish Government paid almost £1 million to the company just last year. Does the First Minister think it wise to award companies that pay such low wages?"
Ms Sturgeon said: "I think all companies should pay the tax that they are due to pay.
"The Scottish Government, in the limited tax responsibilities that we have, takes tax avoidance very seriously.
"Of course, I wanted us to have more tax responsibilities, something that Willie Rennie argued vociferously against.
"So, we will continue to stand up for fairness and for companies paying the tax that they are due.
"But I take a different view from the one that Willie Rennie articulated in a debate in Dundee on Monday evening in which he appeared to suggest that Fife would be better-off without the jobs that are offered by Amazon."
Mr Rennie said: "I know she finds it difficult to listen to anybody else, but the question was about wages and not about tax.
"If she's too embarrassed to do it, I'll leave her to defend low wages.
"No-one is saying that Amazon should close but I want the government to support good jobs.
"Amazon workers have been in touch this week too. They confirm what I have said: it's an exceptionally horrible place.
"The employment agencies cream off from everyone's wages.
"The Poverty Alliance promotes the living wage. They get a small grant from the Scottish Government.
"It's a brilliant project but why give Amazon four times as much money for low wages than you give the Poverty Alliance to champion the living wage?"
He called on the First Minister to refuse further grants to companies unless they can give a guarantee on wages.
Ms Sturgeon said: "My apologies to Willie Rennie if I misheard his first question. My comments about tax avoidance stand very strongly.
"But on the living wage, Willie Rennie would agree that this Government is arguably doing more than any other government across the UK to promote the living wage.
"The living-wage accreditation scheme now has more than 400 companies signed up to it and there are more people in Scotland paid the living wage now than any other UK nation and in any other part of the UK outside the South East of England.
"I will ask Fair Work Secretary Roseanna Cunningham, the only cabinet-level minister in the UK responsible for fair work, to engage directly with Amazon and other companies to get more people paid the living wage."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel