Amazon’s ‘worker cage’ has been dropped, but its staff are not free | André Spicer

The company’s dystopian patent is shocking – and shows how blue- and white-collar workers are controlled at every turn

A cage for workers on wheels. It sounds like the stuff of science fiction. It’s not. In 2016, Amazon filed a patent for a device described as a “system and method for transporting personnel within an active workplace”. It is actually a cage large enough to fit a worker. It’s mounted on top of an automated trolley device. A robotic arm faces outwards.

The worker cage was designed by Amazon’s robotic engineers. It was intended to protect workers in Amazon’s warehouses when they needed to venture into spaces where robot stock-pickers whizz around. Amazon’s worker cage was quietly patented and only came to global attention thanks to the diligent digging of two academics. When the workers’ cage started to appear in newspaper headlines, Amazon executives declared it a “bad idea”.

Continue reading...

from US news | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2D3vx0C
Buy SEO Service