Amazon Fined in France Over Employee Surveillance Concerns -- Update
January 23 2024 - 7:33AM
Dow Jones News
By Mauro Orru
France's privacy watchdog fined Amazon.com's local warehouse
management business, saying the company had put in place an
"excessively intrusive" system to keep track of staff
performance.
The country's data-protection regulator, the CNIL, announced
Tuesday that it had fined Amazon France Logistique 32 million euros
($34.8 million) in late December, saying the business was
collecting data from scanners used to process packages to gauge
employee productivity and downtime.
The CNIL said the scanners kept track of periods of inactivity
exceeding 10 minutes and when a package is scanned "too rapidly,"
or in less than 1.25 seconds from the previous item, calling such a
system excessive as it could pressure staff to justify each break
or interruption.
The watchdog added that Amazon hadn't properly informed
employees and visitors of video surveillance, in breach of the
European Union's General Data Protection Regulation, the EU's
strict data-privacy and security law.
Amazon said it strongly disagrees with the CNIL and that it
reserves the right to appeal, calling the conclusions "factually
incorrect." The online retail giant said use of warehouse
management systems is a common industry practice to guarantee
safety, efficiency and ensure that packages are processed in a
timely fashion.
The company said it is confident that its systems comply with
European and French regulations and that it had engaged
constructively with the CNIL to address its concerns. However,
Amazon said it had decided to deactivate the functionality that
detects when a package is processed too quickly, and extend the
threshold for inactivity warnings to 30 minutes from 10
minutes.
The CNIL said it made the decision to fine the company after
conducting inspections following press reports about certain
practices at Amazon's warehouses. The watchdog also said it had
received several complaints from employees.
Write to Mauro Orru at mauro.orru@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 23, 2024 07:18 ET (12:18 GMT)
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