Members of the European Parliaments (MEPs) have agreed to scrutinise US tech multinational Amazon’s labour practices on Thursday.
The agreement came in the Employment and Social Affairs (EMPL) committee after a letter was sent out by trade unions, including UNI Europa and the European Trade Union Confederation, outlining key demands to improve accountability and transparency of the company's work practices in Europe.
Amazon will need to attend a hearing in the Parliament’s employment committee, before MEPs go on a fact-finding mission meeting Amazon officials and workers' representatives at its warehouses.
"We commend EU lawmakers setting clear and strict conditions for a parliamentary fact-finding mission and a hearing," said Oliver Roethig, Regional Secretary of UNI Europa. "Crucially, this includes listening to workers’ representatives and trade unions to paint a full pictures of what is going in Amazon’s warehouses.”
The union demands were given as a condition for Amazon lobbyists to be reinstated to the European Parliament for the new term after having been banned.
An Amazon parcel sorting centre in Antwerp. Credit: Belga / Jonas Roosens
In February, Amazon lobbyists had their access badges revoked, after the US company continued refusal to engage with the European Parliament’s Employment Committee on crucial issues concerning working conditions within its warehouses. This was only the second time in the Parliament’s history.
On 10 October, Amazon sent a letter to EMPL coordinator MEP Li Andersson to re-open dialogue, which pushed unions to also send joint letters, outlining conditions for MEPs to decide whether to reinstate them. The letter also urged MEPs to consider Amazon’s history of alleged union-busting and refusal to engage in collective bargaining as part of their deliberations.
Last month, an investigation by the EU Transparency Register revealed that Amazon Europe updated its lobbying spending figures to over €5 million back in August, after a civil society complaint exposed two thinks tanks and two lobbies on the US multinational’s payroll that were not registered. However, Amazon told The Brussels Times at the time this was due to an internal process.
