NEW YORK — Amazon.com Inc. apologized for a tweet denying workers urinate in bottles, a rare instance of contrition from the world’s largest e-commerce company.
Amazon had earlier responded to a tweet from Rep. Mark Pocan accusing the company of working its people so hard that they couldn’t access bathrooms. Addressing Pocan directly, consumer chief Dave Clark tweeted: “You don’t really believe the peeing in bottles thing, do you?”
After enduring several days of criticism, the company issued a blog post Friday apologizing and saying Amazon had been referring specifically to its warehouse workers, not contract drivers who often struggle to find washrooms while delivering packages.
“This was an own-goal, we’re unhappy about it, and we owe an apology to Representative Pocan,” Amazon said in the blog. “First, the tweet was incorrect. It did not contemplate our large driver population and instead wrongly focused only on our fulfillment centers.”
The company said delivery drivers at many companies struggle to find restrooms and that the problem had worsened during the pandemic.
“Regardless of the fact that this is industry-wide, we would like to solve it,” Amazon said in the blog. “We don’t yet know how, but will look for solutions.
