Coronavirus: justice orders Amazon to limit its activity to essential goods in France
Coronavirus: justice orders Amazon to limit its activity to essential goods in France
The judicial court of Nanterre considers that the company "disregarded its obligation of security and prevention of the health of the employees" and enjoins him to restrict its activity to "food, hygiene and medical products".
The judicial court of Nanterre ordered, Tuesday, April 14, Amazon France to establish an assessment of the risks inherent in the epidemic of Covid-19 for all its warehouses and to restrict while awaiting its activity to only essential products, according to the judgment got. The court considers that the company "has obviously disregarded its obligation of safety and prevention of the health of employees".
It enjoins him to restrict his activity "to the sole activities of receiving goods, preparing and dispatching orders for food, hygiene and medical products, subject to a penalty of one million euros per day late and by offense noted ".
One month restriction
This restriction applies "within twenty-four hours" and for one month. Amazon must involve staff representatives in the risk assessment.
Amazon, "disagree with the decision," said it will appeal. "We are currently assessing its implications for our French logistics sites," added the group in a press release. The company, which employed in February nearly 6,500 employees on permanent contracts (CDI) and 3,600 temporary workers in its six French warehouses, claims to have distributed on its sites "more than 127,000 packages of disinfectant wipes, more than 27 000 liters of hydroalcoholic gel, as well as more than 1.5 million masks "and having" implemented temperature controls and social distancing measures ".
Amazon "has not stood idly by" since the start of the epidemic, recognizes Laurent Degousée, co-delegate of the SUD-Commerce union behind the complaint (brought by Union Syndicale Solidaires) at a conference press release. But the company carried out "a stack of measures without any evaluation". Thus, the temperature measurements of employees at the entrance to the sites cause queues, and therefore contacts favoring possible contamination, he recalls. The court also accuses Amazon of having produced "no minutes of meetings of the ESCs [social and economic committee] nor of the central ESC since the beginning of the epidemic".
The court was seized by SUD (Union syndicale Solidaires), the first union in the company, supported by Friends of the Earth. The Friends of the Earth intervention was declared inadmissible. The court rejected the request "principally" filed by the union to completely stop the activity of the warehouses on the grounds that they bring together more than 100 employees in a closed place
On the other hand, it grants the request "in the alternative" to stop the delivery of non-essential products until a risk assessment and the measures necessary to protect the health of employees have been implemented. The court also orders Amazon to pay damages to SUD up to 4,800 euros
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