On Wednesday 28 January, representatives from Amazon were invited by the European Parliament’s Committee on Employment and Social Affairs to talk about working conditions in the American company’s European warehouses. They found it difficult to dispel doubts about the accusations of inadequacy that had been made against them in terms of health and safety standards and intrusive monitoring of workers.
Although the committee has been trying for several years to organise this hearing – and even decided in 2024 to withdraw the company’s permanent access to the European Parliament due to a lack of a positive response – David Zapolsky, the company’s senior vice-president and director of legal and international affairs, Stefano Perego, vice-president of international operations, and Lucy Cronin, vice-president for EU public policy, finally agreed to go along with it.
The purpose of the hearing was to give the company an opportunity to comment on the testimonials “that we have received suggesting that the level of protection afforded to workers in Amazon warehouses, as well as respect for their rights, remains at best uncertain”, commented the chair of the parliamentary committee, Li Andersson (The Left, Finnish).
“To date, little has been done to dispel these concerns. We continue to see headlines and reports pointing to issues such as intrusive employee monitoring, unpaid overtime, workplace safety violations, and insufficient protection of worker rights. So taken together, our fear is that this suggests the existence of systemic problems in the management of the European workforce”, added the MEP, who was nonetheless pleased that the company had this time agreed to an “open and constructive exchange”.
David Zapolsky began by explaining that he had “personally visited Amazon facilities in more than 20 countries across Europe and met with national authorities from almost every Member State represented here today”.
The company, which has more than 250 logistics sites and 11 research and development centres in the EU, employs more than 150,000 people in the EU “in quality jobs across a range of functions from management to research and development, environmental science, film and TV, and logistics”.
“The Group has invested more than €225 billion in the EU since 2010. In 2024 alone, this figure was over €38 billion. We also support small businesses”.
Amazon also “pays up to 12% more than the minimum wage (or have a Collective Bargaining Agreement where applicable) across the EU”, added Stefano Perego.
“Our employees have the right to join a union. They always have. In fact, we actively engage with works councils and other types of employee representative bodies at sites across the EU”, he added.
In addition, the rate of recordable incidents in Europe has fallen by 31% in five years and, “since 2019, we’ve invested more than $2 billion in our safety efforts globally, including new technologies and programmes to protect our employees”. “In 2024, we conducted 1.7 million inspections across our EU facilities”, added Stefano Perego.
However, the EPP, S&D, Greens/EFA and The Left MEPs were not reassured, basing their arguments on real events, such as the death of an employee in Germany during the last ‘Black Friday’ event, or workers’ accounts of excessive pressure and premature physical fatigue. There have been journalistic investigations revealing intrusive monitoring – even in toilets – and the infiltration of trade unions.
Amazon officials have repeatedly reported that they are “deploying technologies like robotics and AI, but it’s not used for worker surveillance”. “We do not spy on trade unions”, Lucy Cronin assured us.
When asked about an accident rate that was “twice as high as in other EU companies”, according to Belgian EPP member Pascal Arimont, the company gave assurances that it complies with all EU safety and working standards.
While MEP Marlena Maląg (ECR, Polish) cited studies on the intense pressure on workers, “44% of whom give up their breaks to meet productivity targets”, David Zapolsky again denounced the disinformation.
“This hearing is a victory for workers (...). In this context, it would be incomprehensible to immediately reinstate the Amazon badges and stop the political pressure at a time when it is beginning to bear fruit”, said Leïla Chaibi (The Left, French) after the hearing. The PfE and Renew Europe groups did not take part in this hearing and, according to one source, while the groups active during the hearing were not particularly satisfied, Amazon representatives are likely to soon regain their permanent access to the European Parliament. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)