A sharp increase in workplace accidents, “alarming” absenteeism, significant turnover: a report scrutinizes social practices in Amazon France warehouses, while employees speak of illegal practices and a culture of “pressure”.
From this document – drawn up by the independent firm Progexa for Amazon’s central CSE and transmitted in October – a striking figure emerges: the number of work accidents resulting in lost time has more than doubled in 2022, i.e. 1,132 incidents compared to 482 l ‘last year. The study covers the 8 warehouses and the headquarters.
The employees interviewed by AFP, all of whom wished to remain anonymous and whose first names have been changed, explain this figure by managerial “pressures”, “results imperatives”.
“During the 7.5 hour shift, several managers come, they pass the baton, they don’t let you go,” says Nadia, 47, who works in Senlis (Oise) and says she is “demoralized”.
And in the event of an injury, many denounce a strategy of “blame”, like Hélène, who blocked her back: “They told me it was my fault”.
The 56-year-old handler believes that it is rather because in her warehouse in Sevrey (Saône-et-Loire) employees have recently been handling packages weighing up to 20 kilos, without the workstations having been adapted or without machines. , “not available”.
Benoît, also at Sevrey, claims that when he injured his arm, his superiors wanted to “make him sign a ‘leaving order’”, rather than reporting a work accident.
Still “taken aback”, Brigitte, 50, says that her superior called her after an accident when she was working night shift to suggest that she take “recovery hours” rather than taking time off.
Employees therefore believe that the number of accidents is low, with Amazon doing “anything to avoid having workplace accidents”, deplores Hélène. Even asking unwell employees, like Nora who had “a shoulder problem”, to stay on their job despite the pain.
“(My superior) told me: ‘There is absenteeism, there is no one, you have no choice’”. But the 23-year-old student “burst into tears because the pain was so strong” after several hours and ended up leaving the company.
The absenteeism rate, at 15.9%, is “alarming and can be explained in particular by the very sharp increase in sick leave (+91%)”, figures Progexa.
“We offer our more than 20,000 employees in France a safe and modern working environment,” defended an Amazon spokesperson, contacted by AFP. “An independent survey carried out by Ifop in 2023 reveals that more than 8 out of 10 Amazon employees would recommend their loved ones to come and work there and plan to do so in the coming years,” he recalled.
Amazon has invested more than 25 million euros in 2022 in France in projects aimed at improving the safety and well-being of its employees on logistics sites, the delivery giant said.
In its report, Progexa notes that Amazon is having difficulty “stabilizing” its workforce in its warehouses, with 9 out of 10 employees having less than 5 years of seniority. He puts the turnover rate at 36%, which, theoretically, means that “approximately every 3 years, the entire AFL (Amazon France Logistics) staff is renewed”.
In addition, “natural departures” (such as retirement or transfers) are poorly represented at Amazon (3%). In 2022, 31% of permanent employees who left the company did so due to an end to their trial period, 38% because they were dismissed, 25% because they resigned or 3% with a conventional termination.