Amazon has patented an electronic bracelet that controls what movements the workers perform with their hands and vibrates if they are not the "right" ones. GeekWire, an internet site that deals with technology, reports this. The company, consulted by Il Sole 24 Ore in this regard, replied: “We do not issue comments regarding patents. At Amazon we are committed to ensuring a safe and inclusive work environment. The safety and well-being of our employees are our priority ”. The newly patented Amazon wireless bracelet would have been? designed to speed up the search for products stored in warehouses by employees.
It would be able to precisely monitor where you put your hands, vibrate to guide them in the right direction and actually controlling all their movements. Again according to what GeekWire writes, who has seen the prototype, at best when an order will be placed on Amazon, the details will be transmitted on the mini computer to the employee's wrist to take the goods, put it in a box and move to next task. The worst case scenario, observes GeekWire, is that the bracelet provided by Amazon represents a means to monitor employees. "Amazon - recalls GeekWire - has already earned the reputation of a company that turns employees, paid little, into human robots who work near real robots, carrying out repetitive packaging tasks as quickly as possible" with the goal of achieving the ambitious delivery targets set by the Jeff Bezos company.
It is not certain that the patent actually finds a practical application within the company. But, theoretically, the data collected through the system could be crossed with a mapping of objects in storage, so as to verify if the wearer of the device is going to take the goods in the right place. The simple news of the patent, taken from various newspapers, has meanwhile already sparked controversy on social media, with the company accused of exaggerating in the control of its employees. Matteo Salvini is also thundering from his Facebook profile. "Men or slaves?", The League leader asks himself, announcing that he wants to "restore dignity to work" that some multinationals "exploit, squeeze and then scrape". The case breaks out at a particularly delicate moment for society in Italy. Amazon has recently announced the opening of two new centers: one in Torrazza Piemonte, in the metropolitan city of Turin, and one in Casirate d'Adda, in the province of Bergamo, for a total of 1.600 jobs. But in the autumn it also had to face the first strike of the employees of the Castel San Giovanni, in Piacenza. "
Also the Minister of Labor, Giuliano Poletti, commented on the Amazon initiative to equip its employees with a bracelet to control their productivity: "In Italy there is a law and the things that can be done are those allowed by law" and he added: "On the subject of controls, the law states that in order to have certain authorizations, there must be an agreement with the trade unions and the competent authorities. I do not evaluate anything on the merits, but in Italy the law is applied and respected. It is valid for Amazon as for everyone else ".
For the MEP and Federal Deputy Secretary of the Lega Lorenzo Fontana this bracelet is the antechamber of the inhuman and to give a good idea to the writer of science fiction novels Isaac Asimov: "Employees active seven days a week, h24, controlled by robots and with robot times: this is the world that promises this globalization dominated by multinational oligopoly. In this sense, the 'ultrasound bracelet' that would be patenting Amazon for its workers is the antechamber of the inhuman and opens up disquieting prospects. When we read Isaac Asimov we thought it was science fiction, globalization is turning it into a dramatic reality. But to oppose is still possible, and it is our battle ".
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