Amazon France suspends distribution centre activities over coronavirus dispute
Amazon is temporarily halting its operations in France after a court ruled the US e-commerce giant had failed to adequately protect warehouse workers during the coronavirus outbreak.
The civil court outside Paris said that it must restrict deliveries to only food, hygiene and medical products until it addressed the issue. The company was given a deadline of Wednesday evening to carry out the order or face a fine of one million euros per day. Amazon said it would appeal.
“We have suspended activities in our distribution centres in France, despite the huge investment we have made to ensure and strengthen safety measures for our employees,” the retailer said in a statement. It added that the ruling was “perplexing” but the fine was too steep to risk not complying.
It also lashed out at the unions behind the court case and warned that there would likely be “consequences for many people in our country,” including thousands of employees, customers and French businesses that make sales on Amazon’s platform.
Meanwhile, Stateside…
Amazon has fired two employees who blasted the company over its warehouse conditions during these challenging times.
UX designers Emily Cunningham and Maren Costa were let go on Friday. They were members of the Amazon Employees for Climate Justice group and had flagged up via Twitter a “lack of safe and sanitary working conditions” for warehouse workers.
“Amazon fired me and @marencosta,” Cunningham said on Twitter. “As Mary Oliver wrote, "oh! how rich it is to love the world." It's a gift to be able to fight for something you love so deeply. All I know is that we need eachother. And that we can do this. PS I love you.”
An Amazon spokesperson stated the pair had been shown the door for “repeatedly violating internal policies…We support every employee’s right to criticise their employer’s working conditions, but that does not come with blanket immunity against any and all internal policies.”
A third employee, Chris Hayes, also had his employment cut short after he criticised its treatment of warehouse workers. He had already handed in his resignation and was planning to leave this week, but a few hours after he invited co-workers to a virtual discussion with warehouse workers, a human resources representative told him he would no longer be allowed to work.
Amazon recently posted an update to its blog citing the numerous safety measures it has offered employees, including personal protective equipment, temperature checks, social distancing guidelines, and other process updates meant to keep workers healthy.
