Amazon Lawsuit Following Works Council Election in Austria

After reviewing employee complaints, Amazon concluded that the election was irregular, a company representative explained to the APA on Wednesday. Until the final judicial clarification, the online retailer will continue to cooperate with the newly elected employee representative.

After Amazon's Lawsuit Against Works Council Election: vida Union "Surprised by the Change of Opinion"

Employees at Amazon in Austria have had a works council since June. The company spokesperson emphasized that they work together trustingly with this council. However, after the recent election of the workers' works council, they concluded that the election was not properly conducted because not all employees at all locations had the opportunity to vote or stand for election. Therefore, they challenged the election at the Korneuburg Regional Court as a labor and social court. Until the conclusion of the judicial review, they will continue to work with the newly elected works council of the workers.

The vida regional chairman of Lower Austria, Horst Pammer, expressed his "surprise at the change of opinion" in the Amazon management in Austria, with which there had previously been good agreement, in a conversation with the APA. Perhaps the Austrian management received a correction from Germany or the USA, the unionist suspects. "It's a mystery to me why they want to take legal action here after the objection period. This is about legal subtleties." He is looking forward to the lawsuit with composure.

Regarding the substantive allegations that the works council election was not properly conducted, the union has received no indications from employees that anything was amiss, said Pammer. Only the management itself had made a statement in this direction. If there were unexpectedly to be a new election of the works council, this would not change anything, the unionist believes. However, the dispute comes "in the middle of the Christmas business" and is inconvenient and damaging to the company.

On Monday, the vida union announced that a workers' works council was elected for the first time at Amazon Austria. The nine-member works council team represents the interests of almost 700 workers at the Amazon logistics locations in Vienna, Lower Austria, Carinthia and Styria. The headquarters of the new works council is located in the Lower Austrian Amazon logistics center in Großebersdorf. Jorge Plaut was appointed chairman.

(APA/Red)

This article has been automatically translated, read the original article here.