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Yet again, Amazon is refusing to negotiate better conditions with its employees.

On July 2, the second meeting between Amazon Fulfilment Poland and two unions representing warehouse workers broke down when the company walked away from the table.

During the discussions, mediated by Paweł Galtz, Amazon rejected key proposals by NSZZ Solidarity Union (Solidarność) and Workers’ Initiative (Inicjatywa Pracownicza) on how workers are assessed by the company.

Despite Amazon’s outright dismissal of the issues, the unions were willing to continue the dialog, but the management broke off all discussions.

“Amazon has a history of walking away from true, constructive dialog with unions and workers in Poland and beyond,” said Mathias Bolton, Head of UNI Commerce. “This is why workers are organizing to make sure their voices are heard and their issues are addressed.”

The unions will decide on their next steps in the next few days. In May, they announced a collective dispute that could eventually lead to a strike.

After the break down of mediation, they released the following statement:

“We oppose the increase of indicators (standards) as a result of increased personal contribution of employees regardless of the prevailing technical or organizational conditions (treatment of labour standards in accordance with Article 83 of the Labour Code). In our opinion, exceeding the standards does not constitute a basis for their change if it is the result of an increased personal contribution of an employee or his or her professional fitness, and not the result of organisational or technical improvements.

“We proposed extending the period taken into account in the employee appraisal

“We oppose the application of one standard regardless of the psychophysical features of the employee - currently Amazon does not include, among others, the categories of gender, age, and employment for a fixed and indefinite period, referred to in Article 18 (3a) of the Labour Code. In our opinion, the criteria for evaluation according to the indicated standards should look different in the case of women and older workers, and the evaluation itself should not affect the conclusion or non conclusion of employment contracts with employees for an indefinite period of time.

“We demanded the participation of the social side in the procedure of setting the objectives and their verification.”

The unions also want to see changes to the company’s abuse of temporary workers.