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Amazon fined millions for excessive control of employees
Amazon was fined 32 million euros for "excessive" control of its workers in France. France's data protection watchdog CNIL said warehouse operator Amazon France Logistique was recording data captured by workers' hand-held scanners.
Amazon allegedly tracked employees so closely that workers had to justify every break. Amazon firmly stated that it does not agree with the findings of the CNIL and called them false.
The CNIL investigated Amazon's warehouses following employee complaints and media coverage of the situation. He cited several areas where he found Amazon to have violated the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Among other things, the three-alert system for monitoring employee activities, which the CNIL ruled to be illegal, is said to be questionable.
One warning was triggered if an item was scanned too quickly or less than 1.25 seconds after the previous item was scanned, increasing the risk of error. A second alert signaled breaks lasting 10 minutes or more, and a third monitored breaks between one and 10 minutes.
The CNIL also questioned why Amazon had to keep workers' data for 31 days.
In response to the findings, an Amazon spokesperson said: “Of course, we do not agree with the findings of the CNIL, which are factually incorrect, and we reserve the right to file an appeal. Warehouse management systems are the industry standard and are required to ensure the safety, quality and efficiency of work performance and to monitor inventory storage and timely processing of packages in line with customer expectations.”
A similar Amazon warehouse system has been exposed in the UK before.
Amazon's head of European policy, Brian Palmer, told a parliamentary committee in November 2022 that a worker could be fired if he had three productivity violations in the system. The online giant later said they were not "entirely correct".
A subsequent report published by the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee raised concerns about the use of surveillance technology to set performance targets and monitor performance.
The report said there was evidence to show that Amazon's supervisory practices "lead to mistrust, micromanagement and, in some cases, disciplinary action against workers."
Amazon also used the data collected by the scanner to plan work in warehouses, evaluate employees weekly and train them. The supervisory authority decided that Amazon did not need access to the data collected by the scanners for this.
The online shopping giant was fined for failing to adequately inform workers and outside visitors about the surveillance, and the watchdog also found that video surveillance was insufficiently secured.
The GMB union, which represents Amazon's warehouse workers in the UK, responded to the ruling by saying that employees at the company face "severe pressures of scrutiny and control".
