Amazon seeks to recruit close to 1,000 seasonal staff for its Peterborough centres

Internet retailer Amazon is looking to recruit about 1,000 extra staff for its Peterborough centres ahead of the busy Christmas season.

The online giant says the next few weeks are its busiest of the year and it is seeking to take on seasonal staff on fixed-term contracts.

Amazon has three centres in Peterborough and employs about 1,000 people at its main fulfilment centre at Kingston Park which is where most of the vacancies have arisen.

It employs175 staff at its Delivery Station at Alwalton Hill where it is looking for more than 10 extra staff. It also operates a smaller facility in Orton Southgate.

It is understood that across the trio of sites, Amazon is looking to take on close to 1,000 extra staff over the Christmas period.

A spokesperson for Amazon said: “We always recruit a lot of people across the network at this time of year because it’s our busiest period.

"The last quarter of the year has all the big sales dates such as Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Christmas.

"It means every year we have to recruit seasonal employees on fixed-term contracts for this period.”

The new recruitment drive comes shortly after the retailer announced a pay hike for its staff.

It means that its minimum starting pay for ‘frontline’ employees – which includes all full-time, part-time, temporary and seasonal roles – has risen from £12 to £12.50 and which came into force on October 15.