Miserly Amazon bosses reacted to the Sunday Mirror's investigation into its shocking working conditions – by giving out tiny chocolates.

Staff on gruelling 10-and-a-half-hour shifts were given one Celebration sweet in the first half of their day and another in the second half.

The bizarre gesture is revealed today by former employee Neil Drinkwater – who quit after his partner read our exposé and realised for the first time what he had been enduring.

We told last week of exhausted warehouse staff falling asleep on their feet as they chased impossible targets.

And the five-week investigation led to a widespread backlash against the £7.3billion-a-year online giant.

Neil, 41, started at Amazon after losing his sales job when the construction firm he worked for went bust.

He told us: "This week our managers started coming round with a box of ­Celebrations for the first part of the shift, and gave us a chocolate each.

"Then they did the same at the second part of the shift. Me and my colleagues were saying this was down to the Sunday Mirror. We all thought it was an insult."

Staff at Amazon's "fulfillment" centres, where orders are put together, packed and shipped, work up to 55 hours a week for £8.20 an hour.

Their boss, American Jeff Bezos, 53, is the world's richest man. Like Neil, he is a dad of four. Last year he made £2.2million an hour.

Neil, who had spent a month on nights at Amazon's plant near Manchester, handed in his resignation after ­Wednesday's night shift.