Working conditions in a UK-based Amazon warehouse could cause “mental and physical illness,” with workers treated like robots according to a BBC investigation.

The undercover research, which will appear tonight on the BBC’s Panorama programme, said night shifts can involve up to 11 miles of walking, during which a worker could be expected to collect orders every 33 seconds.

The coverage was shown to Professor Michael Marmot, one of Britain’s leading experts on stress at work who said conditions are “all the bad stuff at once.”

Hundreds of delegates came together to set out key challenges facing IT, telecoms and business service workers on day one of UNI Europa's ICTS Conference.

UNI General Secretary Philip Jennings welcomed delegates to Rome with a rallying call: “In this sector you face the new organising challenges,” he said. “It is important that we use the best in all of us to win that fight. We can succeed. We have broken through in the most difficult places.”

Europe’s largest gathering of ICTS trade unions has opened in Rome with UNI Europa’s ICTS Conference set to run for two days in the Italian capital.

Around 180 delegates from telecoms, IT and business services unions in 22 European countries will attend the meeting, which will be also broadcasted by live stream.