Amazon receives a fine from the Ministry of Business and Labor of the Generalitat for violate labor laws. The e-commerce giant will have to pay €3.2 million, which are in addition to a previous fine of 800,000 euros that he received in 2020 for a similar infraction; and another 222 infractions.
As reported Catalonia Radio, the file was opened in February to investigate the company’s labor practices. Now is when the case has been closed and has culminated in a proposal for a fine of 3.2 million euros for illegally assigning workers. This means that amazon has been outsourcing workers that they had to use the same systems that their own workers use, but these charged lower rates for their work. An illegal activity, since in Spain it is stipulated that subcontracting must have the same conditions as workers hired directly by the company.
17 subcontracting companies that worked with Amazon will also be affected and will now have to pay 2.6 million euros.
A spokesman for the regional government told the digital media TechCrunch that “the Labor Inspection of Catalonia proposes a fine [total] of 5.8 million euros to Amazon for subcontracting workers, according to the Statute of Workers’ Rights«. While Amazon has said that it will not comment, it is speculated that it may intend to appeal the sentence.
Amazon fined for having 559 illegal workers
The investigation concludes that around 559 workers were working for Amazon illegally, since their working conditions were inferior. Some of the laws that the e-commerce company has broken are not offering legal working conditions, not providing employment stability, and not offering legal representation.
Amazon controlled the entire hiring process and was in charge of controlling the work of the workers through the multinational’s software. The companies that are also involved are:
The list of subcontracted companies by the technology giant that will have to pay a fine, ordered from highest to lowest amount, are:
- Tipsa Delivery
- now i come
- Internet Commerce Solutions
- Transportcat Logistics
- Delivery Asap
- Naughty Logistics
- Cocoa Logistics
- Jom Comprehensive Services
- Let’s go Advanced Logistics
- Galo Kajol
- Duende Logistics
and the list of temporary work companies subcontracted with penalty proposal, also from highest to lowest amount:
- JT Hiring
- Gi Group Spain
- Temporary Quality
- Timing Magnet
- Ranstad Jobs
- Rhone Alpes Services Spain
The Government approved a labor reform in Spain in 2021 to control the work of delivery platforms. However, the company has not been fined following this regulation but rather the Statute of Workers’ Rights in general. Therefore, although Amazon has only been fined in Catalonia, what will happen to the rest of the communities? Will they follow the steps the Ministry of Business and Labor of the Generalitat?