I was going to start a 'Corporate Malfeasance' catch all thread but perhaps this is better here.
FTC says Amazon took $62 million in tips from drivers
NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon is paying nearly $62 million to settle charges that it took tips from its delivery drivers.
The Federal Trade Commission said Tuesday that Amazon didn't pass on tips to drivers for more than two years, even though it promised shoppers and drivers it would do so. The FTC said Amazon didn't stop taking the tips until 2019, when the company found out about the FTC's investigation...
...Amazon took elaborate steps to mislead its drivers and conceal its theft, sending them canned responses that repeated the company’s lies.”
The drivers were part of Amazon's Flex business, which was founded in 2015 and allows people to deliver Amazon packages with their own cars. The drivers are independent workers, and are not Amazon employees.
The FTC said Amazon at first promised workers that they would be paid $18 to $25 per hour. It also told them they would receive 100% of tips given to them by customers on the app.
But in 2016, Amazon started paying drivers a lower hourly rate and used the tips to make up the difference, according to the complaint. Amazon didn't disclose the change to drivers, the FTC said, and the tips it took from drivers amounted to $61.7 million...
...The FTC said the money Amazon is paying for the settlement will go back to delivery drivers whose tips were taken.
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There needs to be the ability to impose significant 'punitive penalties' for stuff like this so that the threat of such penalties makes it not worth risk doing it. If the only penalties are 'you have to give it back if caught', and only a fraction of them are caught, then it makes it worth the corporate gamble.