Amazon under scrutiny in Poland after worker’s death prompts inspections
Poland’s labor authorities have launched mass inspections at Amazon warehouses across the country after left-wing Deputy Speaker Włodzimierz Czarzasty intervened following the death of a 48-year-old employee in Sosnowiec, a city in southern Poland.
After the intervention by left-wing Deputy Speaker of the Polish Parliament Włodzimierz Czarzasty, Poland’s National Labor Inspektorate launched widespread inspections at Amazon warehouses across the country following the death of a 48-year-old worker in Sosnowiec in southern Poland, near Katowice. Photo: PAP/Leszek Szymański/Sagar Soneji/Pexels.com/CC0
According to the Polish Radio IAR news agency, the National Labour Inspectorate will begin inspections this week at Amazon warehouses in response to the death of an employee who collapsed while walking through a corridor and died during work duties at one of the company’s logistics centres.
Marcin Stancki, the Chief Labour Inspector, explained in an interview with Polish Radio that the inspections at Amazon could last several weeks and will include, among other things, an analysis of employees’ working hours.
Amazon employs several thousand people across 11 logistics centres in Poland. In a media statement, Amazon said it is a “responsible employer,” adding that employee health and safety is an “absolute priority,” and that 24-hour medical care is available at the warehouse where the fatal accident occurred.
Deputy Speaker Włodzimierz Czarzasty, speaking in the Polish parliament on Tuesday, emphasized that this is not the first death of an employee while working in Amazon’s Polish warehouses.
During a ten-hour shift, workers complain about having to walk up to 30 kilometres per day and report being overworked. However, according to prosecutors’ findings, the most recent fatality at Amazon was due to natural causes.
The local Sosnowiec edition of Gazeta Wyborcza reported that during the morning shift on Wednesday, June 25, the body of a man was found lying with his head in a pool of blood, but the prosecutor’s office decided not to conduct an autopsy.
(mp)
Source: IAR/Polskie Radio/Gazeta Wyborcza/money.pl/X/@__Lewica
