Siobhán McSweeney was irritated to see Amazon use her photograph in what was meant to be a humorous tweet… and the conglomerate reacted quickly.
On Monday, August 21, the Derry Girls actress discovered that the e-commerce business had grabbed a photo of her from a festival edition of The Great British Bake Off and turned what she said on the Channel 4 show into a meme.
The tweet anticipated how someone might respond if they got a message that their Amazon item had been delivered to their house while they were at work.
‘Your Amazon parcel has been delivered,’ the tweet read, before adding: ‘Me at work…’ alongside a picture of Siobhán stating: ‘I might not go back in… I’m gonna go home actually,’ from when she was taking part in the baking competition, which can be streamed on Prime Video.
The actress responded with irritation little over 20 minutes after the tweet was posted.
‘As if you’d let an employee leave their work to get a parcel. You won’t even leave them go for a pee. I don’t like that you are using my image [sic],’ the 43-year-old stated.
A mere 20 minutes or so later, the original post had been deleted.
‘Thank you @AmazonUK for deleting my image,’ Siobhán wrote, before adding: ‘And sort out your working conditions.’
Amazon employees conducted the first-ever walkout in the UK earlier this year in a dispute over compensation and working conditions.
Around 300 employees in Coventry walked out after being handed a salary increase of only 50p an hour, according to the GMB union.
Stuart Richards, senior organiser of the union GMB said at the time: ‘They’re taking on one of the world’s biggest companies to fight for a decent standard of living. They should be rightly proud of themselves.’
An Amazon spokesperson said: ‘We appreciate the great work our teams do throughout the year and we’re proud to offer competitive pay which starts at a minimum of between £10.50 and £11.45 per hour, depending on location.
‘This represents a 29% increase in the minimum hourly wage paid to Amazon employees since 2018.
‘Employees are also offered comprehensive benefits that are worth thousands more – including private medical insurance, life assurance, subsidised meals and an employee discount, to name a few.’
An undercover Amazon employee alleged last year that staff were threatened with disciplinary action if they phoned in ill or spent too much time in the lavatory.
In the Channel 5 documentary Amazon: How Do They Really Do It?, author James Bloodworth said: ‘If you had a day off sick, you had a disciplinary. And if you received six of these you would lose your job. You were treated like a piece of data on a spreadsheet.’
Amazon refuted Bloodworth’s statements in the documentary, calling them “sensationalised.”
An Amazon spokesperson also said: ‘James Bloodworth worked at Amazon for only nine days almost five years ago, with the sole purpose to create negative content for his book.
‘This is a tired narrative created to sell a book and despite his negative experience and views on the company, Mr Bloodworth found no issues selling the book on Amazon.’