The Amazon platform at Lauwin-Planque, in the North (Archives) - M.Libert / 20 Minutes

  • Amazon France will provide masks and take the temperature of its employees.
  • Unions denounce announcement effects and pressures.
  • The CGT union will file a complaint this Friday against the company.

This Friday, Amazon France announced that masks would be provided to all its employees to protect them from the coronavirus. In addition, as in the United States, the company will set up a temperature control at the entrance to the sites.

"The authorities do not ask us to work today with masks and yet from today, in all Amazon France buildings, employees will be equipped with masks at their request," announced the Director General of Amazon France, Frédéric Duval on RTL. "From Monday, we will have a temperature control by thermal camera at the entrance of the sites in France".

"It doesn't change anything, it's an announcement effect"

"It doesn't change anything, it's an announcement effect," reacted Laurent Degousée, union representative at Sud Commerce. “Unless the employees are dressed as cosmonauts, the rules of distancing cannot be observed. The concentration of workers makes them ineffective ”. Sud Commerce, the first union at Amazon in France, must also file Friday with the industrial tribunal of Nanterre 11 files of rights of withdrawal of employees contested by Amazon.

In the North, the CGT also announced its intention to file a complaint for "endangering the lives of others", the management having refused to certain employees to exercise their right of withdrawal.

"There are now four cases of contamination of employees in Saran (Loiret) and one employee hospitalized in Bretigny", added the South delegate. "We demand the closure of the six warehouses in France for at least 15 days with the implementation of short-time working, and at least that Amazon, which ensures to deliver only essential products, or 10% of total goods, does not employs only 10% of the staff ”.

"Safety regulations are there"

For several days, the American brand has faced the anger of its employees and union organizations, who are demanding better protections against the coronavirus.

“The safety regulations are there. We discuss them on a daily basis with union organizations and we even go further than what the government requests, ”said Frédéric Duval.

"We have applied all the recommendations made by the government from the start very strictly and gradually as they appear," he said while Amazon was directly singled out by Muriel Pénicaud, the Minister of Labor.

"I hope that we, Amazon, have a - modest - role in managing this crisis, that we are a resource for a good number of French people to stay at home," he added, indicating that Amazon had " from stock ".

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