Amazon has closed six warehouses in France Wednesday after a court ruled it could ship only essential items, such as food and medicine, until it completed an assessment of how to best protect workers amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The French court told the American-based company it had 24 hours to comply before facing a daily fine of nearly $1.1 million and basically handed unions a victory where they have been arguing for more protection from the coronavirus to workers.
The warehouses, which employ over 10,000 permanent and interim workers, will remain closed until Monday so Amazon can complete a health and safety assessment.
“The company is forced to suspend all production activities in all of its distribution centers in order to assess the inherent risks in the COVID-19 epidemic and take the necessary measures to ensure the safety of its employees (during that period),” Amazon said in a document leaked to Reuters.
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