'Injured' temp sues Amazon: Worker claims 11-hour shifts in giant warehouse left him with agonising back pain Rhys Owen, 21, from Bedford, was one of 15,000 Christmas temps this year He said 11-hour shifts left him unable to bend down and tie his shoelaces Solicitor said his symptoms were a 'great cause for concern' for others Back pain: Rhys Owen, 21, was hired as a Christmas temp by Amazon but claimed the chronic pain started almost immediately An Amazon worker hired for the Christmas period is suing the internet giant after 11-hour shifts in one of its warehouses left him with agonising back pain. Rhys Owen, 21, from Bedford, earned Â£7 an hour at the sprawling Milton Keynes base, where employees walk several miles every day, lifting products from shelves. The football fan was one of 15,000 temporary workers hired across Britain by the internet giant to deal with the Christmas rush, but claimed the shifts left him 'middle-aged' before his time. He claimed his target was to pick 1,100 items a day, about 1.8 per minute. Mr Owen, who left university after his first year and has worked for BMW, an insurance broker and an IT firm, said: â€˜They gave us no health and safety training after I started work and we just had an induction by Amazon at the warehouse, where they checked my literacy and numeracy. Many of my co-workers did not speak English, but we were shown a video which demonstrated the picking process, how to use the scanners correctly and handle orders. It was four hours worth of training with them talking for most of it. When he experienced stabbing pains in his back and took a few days off, he was moved onto slightly lighter duties but was told by his temp agency that his contract would be terminated if he did not return to work, he said. 'At the end of my second week I got a bad back and went up to one of the managers to tell him it was really hurting as I went to reach for things,' he said. Everyone is rushing round and rushing harder just to reach their targets. There were people there with blisters on their feet and there was a woman of 45 I was working with and her feet were bleeding. As far as I could see loads of people were being pushed too hard. I've done a few jobs, but never a job like this. 'You get 15 minute breaks and the canteen is a five minute walk from the warehouse, so that's no real break at all. Pain: Mr Owen said the shifts at the warehouse in Staffordshire left him feeling middle-aged before his time Stress: Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos said: 'Our culture is friendly and intense, but if push comes to shove, weÂ¿ll settle for intense.' Pictured: An Amazon centre in Germany, where workers have gone on strike Targets: Amazon has hired 15,000 temp workers in Britain in the run-up to Christmas, working long shifts Fast-paced: Amazon's 'fulfilment centres' are vast, with workers collecting a package every 33 seconds Demand: Thousands of people have ordered from Amazon as Christmas shopping drifts from the high street Amazon's eight giant warehouses in Britain cover five million square feet and employ more than 4,800 permanent staff. The orange-vested employees are tracked by GPS, walk up to 11 miles on a shift and must pass through airport-style security scanners to prove they are not stealing anything. Targets are set astronomically high and as chief executive Jeff Bezos has said: 'Our culture is friendly and intense, but if push comes to shove, weâ€™ll settle for intense.' One agency worker in New Jersey died after being crushed by equipment at an Amazon sorting centre. In Germany, meanwhile, several hundred warehouse workers staged a one day strike this month in a protest over their wages. Virtually everyone there is a temp and they can fire people at will if they are not reaching their targets. Mr Owen clamed he is taking three to five doses of painkillers a day, adding: 'My back is in agony in the morning when it stiffens up. I've not played football since and even find tying my laces agony, so I just slip my trainers on and leave the laces.' His solicitor Andrew Lilley said the working conditions were â€˜a great cause for concernâ€™ and that the formerly fit 21-year-old had an injury usually seen in â€˜someone approaching middle ageâ€™. 'The conditions that our client has described to us are a great cause for concern', he said. 'As well as affecting an individual's immediate well-being, if such conditions are proven to exist at Amazon's fulfilment centres, they could lead to longer term physical problems and greater injuries. 'It appears from what we have been told that the working conditions Rhys faced during his brief time at Amazon's fulfilment centre have caused him the sort of repetitive strain-related back injury we'd expect to see in someone approaching middle age, which does send the signal that something isn't right with the working environment.' A spokesman for Amazon said: 'We wouldn't wish to comment on individual members of our workforce.'