A good employer looks different - Amazon wins the Big Brother Award 2015
The US online retailer Amazon will be awarded the Big Brother Award 2015 in Bielefeld today, winning the prize as the biggest data leech in the employer category. The honour goes to the dispatch centres Bad Hersfeld and Koblenz because the local Amazons demand that their employees disclose legally protected information - in particular sensitive medical data - at the factory gate.
"We know that this doesn't just happen in Bad Hersfeld and Koblenz. We have employment contracts for establishments in Rheinberg and Leipzig and assume on the basis of Amazon's centralized management structure that this is standard practice at all dispatch centres," said Stefan Najda who is responsible for online retailing in Germany’s ver.di union (service sector union).
According to their employment contracts, employees must agree that even sensitive health data be forwarded to a central data base in the USA, which it may be processed and used. Furthermore employees have to declare that they are willing to be examined at any time by a doctor appointed by Amazon and to waive doctor/patient privilege. "This is outrageous and yet another example of Amazon riding roughshod over the rights of its employees. Amazon disregards fundamental data and privacy rights and we are calling upon the appropriate data protection authorities to take immediate action," said Mr Najda.
He pointed out that this was not the first time that Amazon had behaved in this manner. "The company keeps a very close watch on each single work process of its employees. How else could we explain that what they call inactivity records carry complaints about even the briefest work stoppage of just one minute. This is not an isolated case. Supervision and monitoring and constant pressure to perform are part of the Amazon system. This again demonstrates that Amazon employees finally need sound and reliable working conditions that are guaranteed by a collective agreement", said Mr Najda.
Digital Courage presents the Big Brother Award every year. The organization has advocated for basic rights and data protection since 1987. All Big Brother Awards will be presented today between 18:00-20:00 at a gala ceremony at the Hechelei in Bielefeld and can be viewed via livestream at: www.bigbrotherawards.de/stream
Further information is available at www.bigbrotherawards.de and www.digitalcourage.de