Internal documents leaked from the Canadian branch of Amazon revealed instances of employee dissatisfaction were being tracked and measured across all sorting facilities, including one in Melbourne.
The so-called Atlas Model operated by Amazon tracks employee relations events internally as well as external comments on websites such as Reddit to "evaluate emerging workforce issues" according to the training document.
It includes a breakdown chart analysing global warehouse trends, noting 19 external comments were recorded in relation to the Melbourne fulfilment centre with 80 per cent classed as negative.
Labor senator Tony Sheldon pushed Amazon Web Services representatives on the use of AI-powered tracking tools during an inquiry into the developing technology on Friday.
Amazon Web Services is the retail and tech giant's dog in the AI fight, which essentially functions as a utility company - like electricity and water - but for computing power.
That business raked in more than $185 billion in revenue globally in the 2025 US financial year.
But Amazon has also laid off nearly 30,000 workers across all its divisions since late 2025 amid major restructuring, partly related to its adoption of AI.
Representatives from the services team were unable to comment, having only been made aware of the report moments before fronting the inquiry in Canberra.
Amazon executive Nicole Foster instead spoke to the standards applied to responsible use of their services more broadly.
"We use responsible AI dimensions that are more around technical language ... safety, veracity, controllability, fairness, explainability, robustness, privacy, and security," she told the inquiry.
But Senator Sheldon suggested the company was failing to apply the same standards to its own use of AI in the workplace.
"There is not privacy," Senator Sheldon told the inquiry.
"Workers have not been told that they are being surveilled. They've been treated like a digital prison."
The NSW senator raised particular concern with cases in which people have been terminated for raising concerns or joining a union.
"It's a bit like they're using AI to hunt down the workforce that are pursuing their human rights," Senator Sheldon said.
"It's a bit like the workforce being hunted down by the Terminator."
Amazon Australia has been contacted for comment.
Representatives before the inquiry welcomed calls for mandatory safety standards and working toward supporting renewable energy projects to meet data centre energy needs.
However, Amazon dismissed calls to increase the resources allocated to the Australian AI Safety Institute, claiming it's a matter of "quality over quantity" at such an early stage of the body's existence.
"Oftentimes organisations need to grow organically as well, and so I think starting with the right talent at the beginning is a good start," Ms Foster said.
The tech giant has labelled the artificial intelligence boom the first real opportunity to boost global productivity growth in 20 years, echoing analysis from Australia's own Productivity Commission.
