In the corona crisis, the online mail order company Amazon in France applied for short-time work for several logistics centers – but they were not approved. A corresponding application was rejected by the Ministry of Labor, Amazon confirmed.
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As justification for the targeted short-time work, the US company announced that a legal dispute over coronavirus security measures had an impact on Amazon’s activities. Therefore, short-time work was applied for, from which “other companies have benefited”.
The ministry said the application was rejected because the closure of the logistics centers was not related to ordering less, but to the court decision. In this case, short-time work was not planned.
Amazon can only process certain orders
The background to this is a legal dispute about protective measures for employees in logistics centers. At the end of April, an appeals court largely upheld the decision of the lower court in the Paris suburb of Nanterre and decided that Amazon in France could only take orders for certain items for the time being. This includes food as well as hygiene articles and medical devices.
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This requirement applies until the group has improved its protective measures. To this end, Amazon must now carry out a risk assessment in all camps and take the necessary health and safety measures, the court ordered.
Amazon subsequently closed its logistics centers in France for the time being. However, employees should be paid their full salaries during the closure. Amazon apparently wanted to cut costs by applying for short-time work benefits.
The company is now expected to continue closing until May 8. In addition, a meeting with employee representatives is planned for Tuesday.
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Union accuses Amazon of inadequate safeguards
The court decision was obtained from the Union syndicale Solidaires union group. The union accuses Amazon of not creating the conditions in the camps for employees to be able to take the required measures to prevent the spread of the Sars-CoV-2 virus.
Amazon rejected that. In mid-April, the company announced that, in the past four weeks, 1.5 million protective masks and 27,000 liters of hand disinfectant had been brought to the French locations. There are also measures for social distancing there.
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The online retailer is currently in the headlines due to criticism of its protective measures. In April it became known that Amazon had fired two employees in the United States because they had accused the company of lacking climate protection and incomplete protection of warehouse workers against the corona virus.
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