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Comment by notjustanymike | Hacker News Reader

For a company who has repeatedly come under fire for hellish work conditions in their warehouses, a tuition reimbursement program seems like a rather pathetic PR nod. What hourly employee of theirs is going to have the time and 3 year commitment to earn this reward? Never mind the fact that most of their employees are temps from external agencies.

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And all for a measily $1900.

"repeatedly"? Source? I've worked in Amazon warehouses and they are far and above any other workhouse job in terms of both safety, pay and workload required. Granted, I only worked at 2 different Amazon warehouses so my sample small is probably smaller than yours.

It all depends on what your standards are. The working conditions at Amazon warehouses as reported repeatedly by the press would be completely illegal in most Western countries outside the US.

Well, that's meaningless, given that they're in that US. By that logic, the working conditions at most white-collar jobs in the US would also be below your standards, as many EU countries require more vacation, shorter hours (France) and other work rules that don't apply here in the US.

You can't expect Amazon or Walmart to adhere to the laws of a country a facility's not located in. If you think the laws aren't strict enough, then change the laws.

Well we should expect that to happen. we should expect companies to have their own standards which are superior to the mandated minimums.

Apple are doing this with sourcing.

The big mining firms, like BHP Billiton, often apply much higher environmental and safety standards than the local laws. I saw this in a plant in Mozambique, several in South Africa and Australia and one in Colombia. Australia had the toughest laws, but even there the imposed corporate standards were higher than the minimum. It's the right thing to do, but it's also just good business to treat your staff and environment well.

No, Apple is doing this because of pressure from their consumer base in the US, and not from an altruistic sense of right and wrong. It's just good business.

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