Amazon has announced term-time contracts for people who look after children as part of a wider approach to flexible working.

Parents, grandparents and guardians of school-age children will have guaranteed time off during the summer, Easter and Christmas holidays. This will not affect benefits received including medical insurance and life assurance.

The contracts have been trialled at three of Amazon’s sites and are now being phased in across all of Amazon’s fulfilment centres. They will be rolled out to sort centres and delivery stations across the UK later in the year.

The online retailer has also announced a new flexible part-time contract of 80 hours per month which lets employees pick their own shifts.

“We’ve listened to our employees’ views on flexible working and I’m really proud that we’ve introduced new and innovative options based on their feedback,” said Marianna Desai, regional operations director at Amazon. “Both of these contracts put a really important emphasis on work-life balance and I’m certain they’re going to make a positive difference for many of our people.”


This follows the news that Co-op has introduced a new flexible compassionate leave policy which allows managers the discretion to allow employees up to ten days paid leave, double the amount of leave allowed under the previous policy. The retailer has also launched a fertility treatment policy.

The John Lewis Partnership also recently announced it will offer additional paid leave to all new and existing foster carers working at John Lewis and Waitrose. Under the new scheme all employees with fostering responsibilities will receive an extra week of paid leave.

Earlier this year, workers at an Amazon fulfilment centre in Coventry voted to walk out over the company’s 50 pence per hour pay offer and held the first ever Amazon strike in the UK.

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