This post was originally published on this site
Amazon’s facilities in San Fernando de Henares, the biggest in Spain, during a strike on November 23, 2018.
AFP via Getty Images
Amazon.com has reportedly been ordered to give more than 4,000 drivers delivering packages in Barcelona and across Spain proper work contracts, and cover more than $7.2 million (€6.16 million) in back social security payments.
The demand from Spain’s Labor Inspectorate was reported on Thursday by El País newspaper
Thousands of workers at seven fulfillment centers in Germany went on strike earlier this week over pay and conditions during Amazon’s AMZN, -1.86% busy two-day Prime Day sale. Experts have predicted that Prime Day could generate nearly $10 billion in global sales for the company.
The probe by Spain’s Labor Inspectorate, which stretches back to 2017, reportedly found 3,261 false freelancers at Amazon’s fulfillment subsidiaries in Madrid and Barcelona. It is demanding the company pay €5.16 million over those missing contributions. The investigation found 806 such workers at the Amazon Road Transport unit, with a demand of just under €1 million.
In September, Spain’s Supreme Court ruled that food-delivery workers were employees rather than self-employed, in a specific case involving a former worker for Glovo, a food-delivery service. That ruling was expected to ripple through the gig economy, which likely has expanded during the busy pandemic months in Spain as individuals have stayed at home to avoid COVID-19 infections.
A spokesperson for Amazon didn’t immediately return a request for comment, but told El País that the company disagreed with the ruling and was cooperating with local authorities’ investigation.
Spanish workers and unions have taken action against the company before.
In January 2019, workers at the company’s biggest distribution center near Madrid held a two-day strike just ahead of the Kings’ Day gift-giving holiday. The strike was called by the country’s two big unions CCOO and UGT. Workers at that warehouse also held a strike in 2018 to coincide with Amazon’s Prime Day that took place in the summer.
