Image caption Online retailer Amazon employs more than 20,000 people across its eight warehouses during its peak Christmas season 
 
 A BBC investigation into a UK-based Amazon warehouse has found conditions that a stress expert said could cause "mental and physical illness". 
 
 Prof Michael Marmot was shown secret filming of night shifts involving up to 11 miles of walking - where an undercover worker was expected to collect orders every 33 seconds. 
 
 It comes as the company employs 15,000 extra staff to cater for Christmas. 
 
 Amazon said in a statement worker safety was its "number one priority". 
 
 Undercover reporter Adam Littler, 23, got an agency job at Amazon's Swansea warehouse. He took a hidden camera inside for BBC Panorama to record what happened on his shifts. 
 
 He was employed as a "picker", collecting orders from 800,000 sq ft of storage. 
 
 A handset told him what to collect and put on his trolley. It allotted him a set number of seconds to find each product and counted down. If he made a mistake the scanner beeped. 
 
 "We are machines, we are robots, we plug our scanner in, we're holding it, but we might as well be plugging it into ourselves", he said. 
 
 Image caption Adam Littler went undercover as a "picker" at Amazon's Swansea warehouse 
 
 "We don't think for ourselves, maybe they don't trust us to think for ourselves as human beings, I don't know." 
 
 Prof Marmot, one of Britain's leading experts on stress at work, said the working conditions at the warehouse are "all the bad stuff at once". 
 
 He said: "The characteristics of this type of job, the evidence shows increased risk of mental illness and physical illness." 
 
 "There are always going to be menial jobs, but we can make them better or worse. And it seems to me the demands of efficiency at the cost of individual's health and wellbeing - it's got to be balanced." 
 
 Amazon said official safety inspections had not raised any concerns and that an independent expert appointed by the company advised that the picking job is "similar to jobs in many other industries and does not increase the risk of mental and physical illness". 
 
 The scanner tracked Mr Littler's picking rate and sent his performance to managers. If it was too low, he was told he could face disciplinary action. 
 
 When Mr Littler worked night shifts his pay rose from the daily rate of £6.50 per hour to £8.25 per hour. 
 
 Image caption Amazon said the safety of its employees was its "number one priority" 
 
 After experiencing a ten-and-a-half-hour night shift, he said: "I managed to walk or hobble nearly 11 miles, just short of 11 miles last night. I'm absolutely shattered. My feet are the thing that are bothering me the most to be honest." 
 
 Amazon said new recruits are warned some positions are physically demanding and that some workers seek these positions as they enjoy the active nature of the work. The company said productivity targets are set objectively, based on previous performance levels achieved by the workforce. 
 
 Those on the night shift work a four-day week with an hour's break per shift. 
 
 Experts have told Panorama these ten-and-a-half-hour night shifts could breach the working time regulations because of the long hours and the strenuous nature of the work. 
 
 Barrister Giles Bedloe said: "If the work involves heavy physical and, or, mental strain then that night worker should not work more than eight hours in any 24-hour period. 
 
 But Amazon said its night shift is lawful. They said they sought expert advice to ensure the shifts "comply with all relevant legal requirements". 
 
 Amazon said it had invested £1bn in the UK and created 5,000 permanent jobs. 
 
 It added that it relied on the good judgement of thousands of employees. The company said: "Together we're working hard to make sure we're better tomorrow than we are today." 
 
 Panorama: The Truth Behind The Click, BBC One, Monday 25 November at 20:30 GMT and then available in the UK on the BBC iPlayer. ||||| A zoomed image of a computer screen showing the Amazon logo is seen in Vienna November 26, 2012. 
 
 FRANKFURT Union Verdi is preparing more strikes to step up pressure on Amazon in Germany, its biggest market outside the United States, in a dispute over pay and conditions, German media reported. 
 
 Workers at Amazon centers in Bad Hersfeld and Leipzig will walk out for at least one day on Monday, Heiner Reimann of Verdi told daily Stuttgarter Nachrichten. 
 
 The union has organized several short strikes this year in a bid to force the world's biggest Internet retailer to accept a collective agreement on employment conditions similar to deals for the mail order and retail sector, which are more generous than for the logistics sector. 
 
 Amazon regards staff in Bad Hersfeld and Leipzig as logistics workers and says they receive above-average pay by the standards of that industry. 
 
 Verdi board member Stefanie Nutzenberger told weekly Welt am Sonntag that the union could extend industrial action beyond those two centers during the busy Christmas holiday season. 
 
 "And we will concentrate on days that will be especially disruptive to business," she was quoted as saying in an article published on Sunday. 
 
 Amazon employs around 9,000 people in Germany. Sales there grew almost 21 percent in 2012 to $8.7 billion, representing a third of its overseas total. 
 
 "So far the strike action by Verdi has had no impact on shipments to our customers," Amazon spokesman Stefan Rupp said in an e-mailed statement. 
 
 He affirmed the company's stance that it sees no benefit for its workers in the kind of collective agreement Verdi demands. 
 
 (Reporting by Maria Sheahan; editing by Andrew Roche and William Hardy) ||||| It's the most wonderful time of the year ... for people seeking seasonal work. Amazon is planning to hire 70,000 workers to help out for the holiday season. 
 
 The seasonal employees will work full-time at one of Amazon's more than 40 fulfillment centers across the country. Amazon's (AMZN) seasonal hiring this year represents a big increase from 2012, when the company hired 50,000 seasonal staffers. 
 
 Amazon didn't go into details about the specific positions, but workers at the fulfillment centers typically perform a range of tasks involved in online orders: Pulling items from shelves, packing up shipments and storing merchandise. 
 
 It's likely that some of the seasonal staffers will score full-time gigs. In 2012, Amazon said "thousands" of seasonal employees became regular staffers after the holidays, and it expects to do the same this year. So far in 2013, more than 7,000 temporary Amazon employees have become full-time. 
 
 Related story: Toys R Us holiday hiring same as last year 
 
 Amazon is just one of several large companies that ramps up hiring around the holidays. Unlike Amazon's news, however, many other recent holiday hiring announcements have proved disappointing. 
 
 Last week, Toys R Us said it will bring on 45,000 workers this year, roughly on par with last year's plans. Target (TGT) said this month that it plans to hire 70,000 temp workers, down from 88,000 in 2012. 
 
 Wal-Mart (WMT), the nation's largest retailer, said it would hire 10% more workers this year compared with 2012. But a spokesman attributed some of the increase to the company needing to staff the 110 new stores it has opened so far this year, and the "quite a few more" it plans to open in October.
– It's just about that most wonderful time of the year: for holiday shoppers, and for Amazon, which CNN last month reported would be hiring 70,000 seasonal workers to beef up the staffing at its more than 40 US fulfillment centers. Last year, thousands of these workers were converted to full-time employees, making it a good gig if you can get it, right? Not according to a BBC investigation, which had an undercover reporter work the night shift in a UK Amazon warehouse. He showed what he filmed to Michael Marmot, a leading job stress expert. Marmot's conclusion: The working conditions were "all the bad stuff at once." He continued: "The characteristics of this type of job, the evidence shows increased risk of mental illness and physical illness." The 23-year-old reporter worked as a "picker"; a handset would flag an item for him to retrieve and place on a trolley in the 800,000-square-foot space. He was given 33 seconds per product, with his handset counting down the clock each time; it beeped if he made an error, and also sent data to his managers. The reporter said that in one 10.5-hour night shift, he walked "or hobbled" almost 11 miles, noting afterward, "I'm absolutely shattered." Amazon described the picking job as "similar to jobs in many other industries and does not increase the risk of mental and physical illness," and noted that new hires are told some positions can be physically demanding. Meanwhile, Reuters reports that German workers at two Amazon centers are today striking for better pay. (Who isn't likely to complain about Amazon? Its top reviewers, who get major freebies.)