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Online retail giant Amazon has launched free public tours at one of its Melbourne warehouses, which critics warn could shift focus away from criticism about the company’s treatment of staff.
The Ravenhall fulfilment centre in Melbourne’s west has been operating since 2020 and began offering tours to the public in January. The 37,000-square-metre warehouse is responsible for sorting, packaging and shipping orders for online customers.
The experience is advertised as a way to give consumers a behind-the-scenes view of Amazon’s operations. But Bernie Smith, the NSW secretary of the Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Association (SDA), likened the tours to “tech washing”.
“A company with a very poor workplace health and safety record invites people in to have a look so it looks like it’s all OK … But an [hour-long] tour doesn’t really capture the daily grind and the repeat grind of the punishing workloads,” Smith said.
Amazon has faced criticism for the conditions in its warehouses internationally, including pushing back against workers trying to unionise and claims that management were timing staff toilet breaks.
In December 2024, a report by the US Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions found that Amazon’s focus on speed created dangerous conditions for staff. Closer to home, this masthead previously found that Amazon workers in Australian warehouses were facing tough conditions and demanding KPIs.
“It really is about trying to get a social licence for some pretty unacceptable behaviour,” Smith said of the free tours. The SDA currently had four or five ongoing disputes with Amazon, he said.
Ravenhall is the only Amazon centre in Melbourne open to the public, but tours have been running in western Sydney’s robotics fulfillment centre since 2023. The company has allowed tours overseas for more than a decade and now run them in 47 locations across 10 countries.
Human resources expert Rebecca Fraser, who has a background in workplace consultancy, said Amazon’s tours were likely a way to build trust with customers. “It’s actually not unexpected that they had to do something as drastic as this, open it up to the public,” she said.
“Building that trust is what they really want to show people, and they also want to stop the reputation that they’ve got around breaking a lot of rules and regulations from HR in different labour markets.”
Samm Smith, the tours manager at Amazon in Australia, said the public visits were a chance for people to see first-hand the workers behind the online retail marketplace.
“Safety is a top priority across Amazon’s operations, and we’re constantly investing in new technologies and programs to keep our employees safe,” Smith said.
“Our tours are about showing how Amazon is a great place to work, how much our employees enjoy working at our sites and how we strive to have the safest workplaces in the industries in which we operate.”
Inside the Ravenhall facility, attendees are guided through the logistics of one of the world’s largest companies – from sorting items to packaging and shipping to customers.
Semi-retired couple Tracie and Chris Pearce, who attended a tour in February, said they decided to sign up after seeing it advertised on social media.
“It’s nice to see the background of how it all happens before it gets to our front door,” Tracie said. A particular highlight for the pair was seeing the SLAM machine – the acronym for scan, label, apply and manifest – that instantly prints a customer’s delivery label on each package.
“Can you imagine 40 years ago, there would have been someone packing it, typing out the label and sticking it on?” Tracie said.
Amazon’s Ravenhall centre can store up to 600,000 items and employs about 300 staff. Its dense shelves stock items roughly larger than a microwave – including children’s toys, packs of toilet paper, household appliances and slabs of soft drink.
During the tours – which run twice a day, four times a week – attendees are led around by a dedicated guide and observe staff performing their duties in different areas of the business. Tour operator Olivia Adam said the program had been well received by the public.
“We get to tell the story of what happens once you click ‘buy’. Because a lot of people just think the package rocks up at their door. They don’t understand how it all happens,” Adam said.
“Whether you are elderly or you’re coming with a school group, there is always an interest in the fact that we get to show behind the scenes. Everybody is always amazed.”
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