It would be first time a UK union wins formal negotiation rights and comes after GMB-organised strikes at warehouse
Amazon workers at the delivery firm’s Coventry depot are demanding formal union recognition, after membership more than doubled during strike action.
If granted, it would be the first time a union in the UK has won the right to negotiate with the American tech firm.
Continue reading...Workers gather at picket line on Sunday in ongoing demand for pay increase from £11 to £15 an hour
Workers at Amazon’s Coventry warehouse have begun a fresh round of strike action in a dispute about pay during the cost of living crisis.
GMB union members are planning three days of strikes at the huge Coventry centre, known as BHX4, from Sunday 16 to Tuesday 18 April, to be followed by three further days, from 21 to 23 April.
Continue reading...South Korean CEO of Terraform Labs is accused of multi-billion-dollar fraud involving TerraUSD and Luna currencies
A man suspected of being the fugitive South Korean cryptocurrency entrepreneur Do Kwon, accused of orchestrating a multi-billion-dollar fraud that shook global crypto markets last year, has been arrested in Montenegro.
“Montenegrin police have detained a person suspected of being one of the most wanted fugitives, South Korean citizen, co-founder and CEO of Singapore-based Terraform Labs,” the interior minister, Filip Adžić, tweeted late on Thursday.
Continue reading...Online retailer has increased minimum hourly pay for warehouse workers by 50p an hour to £11
Amazon workers in the UK are planning further strike action as they dismissed as “an insult” a 50p an hour increase to its minimum hourly pay for warehouse workers to £11.
The company said the pay rise announced on Wednesday, which will be implemented this weekend, meant minimum pay had risen by 10% in the past seven months, putting it ahead of the legal minimum wage for those aged 23 or over, which will be £10.42 an hour from April.
Continue reading...The stablecoin fell as low as $0.87 as Circle broke the news that its reserves were at the collapsed lender
The value of the world’s fifth-biggest cryptocurrency, USD Coin (USDC), slumped to an all-time low on Saturday after Circle, the US firm behind the coin, revealed that $3.3bn of the reserves backing it were held at Silicon Valley Bank.
USDC is a stablecoin – cryptocurrencies designed to maintain a stable value – USDC’s value is supposed to mimic the dollar. But the coin broke its 1:1 dollar peg and fell as low as $0.87 on Saturday morning.
Continue reading...Wind-down and liquidation plan follows mass withdrawal of deposits after collapse of FTX exchange
The cryptocurrency-focused US lender Silvergate is to wind down its operations after it was hit by customer withdrawals following the collapse of crypto exchange FTX.
The California-based bank had warned last week it was “less than well capitalised” after depositors demanding their money back, adding that it was evaluating its ability to operate as a going concern.
Continue reading...Questions marks sit over daily letter deliveries as government releases discussion paper on postal service
Australia Post is famous for its “we deliver” slogan – but when it comes to letters, it may soon need to add the caveat “but not every day”.
The government released a discussion paper on the future of Australia Post on Wednesday, with question marks once again sitting over daily letter deliveries.
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Continue reading...Amazon chief points to company’s rapid hiring in recent years while saying layoffs mainly to hit its brick-and-mortar stores
Amazon has announced it will cut more than 18,000 jobs from its workforce – the largest set of layoffs in the US company’s history – while business software maker Salesforce is to cut 8,000 workers in the latest purge of tech jobs.
Amazon cited “the uncertain economy” and said the e-commerce giant had “hired rapidly over the last several years” in making the announcement on Wednesday.
Continue reading...Authority says it is holding digital assets until they can be returned to creditors and former customers
The Bahamas securities regulator has said it has seized assets worth $3.5bn (£2.9bn) from the failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX and plans to return them to creditors and former customers.
The Securities Commission of the Bahamas said it had transferred all digital assets under the custody or control of FTX Digital Markets, a Bahamas subsidiary of the FTX operation, to its own digital wallets for “safekeeping”.
Continue reading...The legislation aims to tackle problems as wide-ranging as misogyny, disinformation and consumer fraud
Nearly two decades after the birth of Facebook ushered in the social media era, the EU is introducing ambitious legislation designed to clean up the world’s biggest online forums.
Intended to tackle misogyny, protect children, stop consumer fraud, curb disinformation and protect democratic elections, the Digital Services Act (DSA) is wide-ranging. The UK is introducing its own statute, the online safety bill, but the EU’s rules are likely to have a bigger impact because they cover a bigger market, and the EU is more influential as a regulatory power.
Continue reading...Former boss of collapsed crypto-exchange says he has duty to try to recoup investors’ lost money
Sam Bankman-Fried, the former boss of the failed crypto-exchange FTX, has said he hopes to start a new business to help pay back the victims of his old firm’s collapse.
Speaking to the BBC from the Bahamas, he said he would “give anything” to be able to begin a new venture in order to recoup his users’ lost investments.
Continue reading...Hikes set to hit warehouses and online retailers hardest in 2023 as UK government addresses ‘brick v clicks’ tax gap
Amazon’s UK tax bill jump could jump by £29m next year as a result of changes to business rates that are scheduled to hit warehouses and online retailers the hardest.
The online retailer is likely to be among firms facing big tax rises following the chancellor’s autumn statement, according to analysis from the real estate adviser Altus Group.
Continue reading...Employees at the company’s hub outside Cincinnati Northern Kentucky international airport are now mobilizing
Amazon workers at the air hub outside the Cincinnati Northern Kentucky international airport, Amazon’s largest air hub in the world, are pushing to organize a union in the latest effort to mobilize workers at the tech company.
Workers say they are dissatisfied with annual wage increases this year. About 400 of them have signed a petition to reinstate a premium hourly pay for Amazon’s peak season that hasn’t been enacted at the site yet. Their main demands also include a $30 an hour starting wage, 180 hours of paid time off and union representation at disciplinary hearings.
Continue reading...Sam Bankman-Fried continues to say firm’s downfall can be solely explained by misplaced $8bn
The founder of the failed crypto exchange FTX has written to its former employees apologising for his role in its collapse and continuing to insist its downfall can be solely explained by a misplaced $8bn (£6.7bn).
In the letter, first published by the industry news site CoinDesk, Sam Bankman-Fried wrote: “I deeply regret my oversight failure. In retrospect, I wish that we had done many many things differently … I’m going to do what I can to make it up to you guys – and to the customers – even if that takes the rest of my life.”
Continue reading...President Nayib Bukele bet on bitcoin and its tumbling value has put the Central American country in a financially precarious spot
As crypto-Twitter cascaded with apocalyptic memes about the bankruptcy of cryptocurrency exchange FTX and the sharp drop in the bitcoin price, one account has remained notably silent on the topic.
Unlike in previous crashes, the president of El Savlador, Nayib Bukele, who made bitcoin legal tender a year ago, did not exhort his followers to “buy the dip”. The laser eyes, popular among crypto currency traders, have long since been removed from his Twitter profile.
Continue reading...Bankruptcy filing says ‘questions arose’ about founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s leadership
The collapsed crypto exchange FTX expects to have more than 1 million individual creditors, the company has said in its first bankruptcy filing, scattered across more than 100 companies in the wider group.
According to the filing at the bankruptcy court in the US state of Delaware, where FTX US is based, Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and chief executive, stepped down at 4.30am on Friday, “after consultation with his own legal counsel”.
Continue reading...Founder Sam Bankman-Fried races to find funds to fill multibillion-dollar hole in exchange
The Bahamas securities regulator has frozen the assets of the Bahamas subsidiary of FTX, as the world’s second largest cryptocurrency exchange struggles for survival.
The Securities Commission of the Bahamas said on Thursday it had frozen the assets of FTX Digital Markets and related parties, as well appointing a liquidator for the unit.
Continue reading...The deal was conditional to due diligence of FTX’s balance sheet which raised enough concerns for Binance to back out
Cryptocurrency prices plunged for a second-straight day on Wednesday after crypto exchange Binance announced it was pulling out of its deal to purchase its failing rival FTX Trading.
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies were broadly lower on rumors and news reports that the Binance-FTX deal was in trouble. The CEOs of the two exchanges – Sam Bankman-Freid of FTX and Changpeng Zhao of Binance – had publicly agreed to a merger Tuesday, pending the ability for Binance to perform due diligence of FTX’s balance sheet.
Continue reading...Online furniture retailer’s brand, domain names and intellectual property bought by Next
The online furniture retailer Made.com has collapsed into administration after weeks of speculation, putting about 500 jobs at risk and leaving customers disappointed.
The company’s brand, domain names and intellectual property were immediately bought by the fashion and homeware retailer Next.
Continue reading...Search for crypto entrepreneur Do Kwon after Luna and UST collapse drags down rival currencies
The crypto entrepreneur Do Kwon has denied being in hiding, even as Interpol issued a “red notice” for his arrest after the collapse of the Terra project he founded.
After South Korean prosecutors said he was “obviously on the run”, Kwon tweeted that he was making no attempt to evade law officers. “I’m writing code in my living room … I’m making zero effort to hide,” he said. “I go on walks and malls, no way none of [crypto Twitter] hasn’t run into me the past couple weeks.”
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