Customs, the regulatory office and the police discovered two illegal employees during a major inspection of the online retailer Amazon in Troisdorf on Thursday. A delivery van had completely worn tires and was immediately withdrawn from circulation, said a customs spokesman after the inspection. There is also evidence of payment below the minimum wage in several other cases. These cases would be further investigated.
131 drivers were interviewed and numerous contracts with Amazon subcontractors were checked, said the spokesman. Own Amazon employees were not interviewed, it was only about deliverers at subcontractor companies.
The two young drivers who had delivered packages without a work permit are being investigated; Above all, however, the focus was on the companies that had employed them illegally, said the customs spokesman. “It’s not a trivial offense, the people are neither insured nor are they paid fairly.” The legislature provides for a sensitive five-digit fine and even imprisonment in repeated cases. Amazon accompanied the control very cooperatively, praised the customs spokesman.
The online retailer assured the authorities of full support for such controls. The company expects its contractual partners to comply with the legal requirements, said a company spokesman. This applies in particular to wages, social security contributions and working hours. Amazon has set up a driver hotline in Germany in several languages, which the delivery service can use to report abuses anonymously, as the company announced. The “Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger” had previously reported on the control.
During previous checks, customs and the police repeatedly encountered violations such as falling below the minimum wage, working without social security and significant defects in the delivery vans. During a check at Amazon in Cologne at the end of March last year, there were 24 indications of violations among a good 50 drivers who were interviewed. Among other things, a delivery van was so dilapidated during this inspection a year ago that it had to be shut down and towed on site, as reported by customs. (dpa)