Amazon is dramatically halting operations at its French fulfilment centres for five days from today (April 16) after a local court ruled it was not protecting staff health sufficiently during the Covid-19 pandemic and also ordered it to stop delivering all non-essential goods in line with French lockdown regulations.
The e-commerce giant announced yesterday that it would suspend work at its six distribution centres in France from April 16 to 20 in response to the court decision.
On Tuesday (April 14), a court in Nanterre (outside Paris) upheld a legal complaint by a French union which had claimed that the company was failing to protect its workers sufficiently. More than 100 workers had to work in close proximity to each other in the warehouses, according to the union.
The court ruled that Amazon France had "failed to recognise its obligations regarding the security and health of its workers," according to news agency AFP. It ordered the company to carry out health evaluation measures and to restrict deliveries to groceries, food, hygiene and medical products or otherwise face a daily fine of €1 million.
The ruling followed site walkouts by Amazon workers who claimed they were concerned about risks to their health as well as criticism from French finance minister Bruno Le Maire about “unacceptable” pressure on employees who did not want to work due to the risks.
In response, Amazon France said in a series of Twitter posts that it was "perplexed" by the court ruling in view of its measures to protect workers. It underlined that staff were undergoing daily temperature checks, had been supplied with 1.5 million masks, as well as disinfectants and cleaning supplies, and had to observe 2-metre social distancing rules.
Amazon said it was forced to temporarily close all of its French distribution centres in order to carry out the health evaluation checks and in view of its “complex logistics activities” and the court’s potential fine. Staff would be asked to stay at home. “In the longer term, we will evaluate the impact of this decision for them and our French logistics network,” it wrote.
However, the company emphasised: “We will continue to serve our customers in France through independent companies that sell on Amazon and thanks to the solidity of our global distribution network”.
According to experts, Amazon may now try to divert products from nearby fulfilment centres outside France to its regional sorting centres in France to maintain deliveries of permitted goods.
Amazon’s operational network in France comprises a total of 22 logistics facilities, including the six large fulfilment centres, four regional sorting centres and a dozen local delivery depots. The company employs about 9,300 workers at these facilities.
A new 55,000 sqm distribution centre is scheduled to open at Senlis (Oise) in May, creating about 500 jobs. This would be the 23rd logistics site in the country.
