Amazon to build third warehouse in Doncaster

Amazon is going to build a third fulfilment centre in Doncaster next year.

The move will create 500 new full time permanent positions, the company said, bringing its overall number of Doncaster employees to 1,000 by the end of 2017. The positions are in addition to the 3,500 new people it already announced it was going to employ in the UK.

Amazon pointed out that new hires in Doncaster would be paid £7.35 an hour, which would rise to £8 an hour or more over their first two years of employment. It also indicated that all permanent fulfilment centre employees are given stock grants, which over the last five years were on average equal to £1,000 or more per year per person, with employees also benefiting from a “comprehensive benefits package, including private medical insurance, a company pension plan, life assurance, income protection, subsidised meals and an employee discount”.

The company has previously been under fire for poor working conditions, with protests in the UK and Germany as well as the US over issues such as "robotic" conditions, and "intimidating" security.

It has also been criticised for paying a low level if corporation tax in the UK despite huge sales, and The Bookseller reported last month that accounts show that Amazon paid less tax in the UK in 2015 than a year earlier despite rising UK sales and a change to its accounting methods following the introduction of the so-called Google Tax.

The accounts also showed the company received more money in government grants in 2015 then a year earlier, receiving nearly £2m in Westminster hand outs, up from £1.8m a year in 2014.

An Amazon spokesperson has not responded to a request for comment over whether it would receive any government grants for building this third Doncaster warehouse.

The company claims to have invested more than £4.6bn in the UK economy to build and run its UK business since 2010.

John Tagawa, Amazon’s vice president of UK Operations, said: “We already have two fulfilment centres in Doncaster so know from experience that there is strong talent in the region who would be well suited to working for Amazon. We look forward to hearing from people to fill a range of roles you would expect of a business like Amazon, from specialist professions such as engineering, HR or IT, through to large strategic leadership roles and people to fulfil customer orders maintaining our customer promise.”