A TV documentary alleges that Amazon’s 6.3 billion-euro operation in Germany has routinely used security guards linked to neo-Nazi groups to bully and frisk workers. According to the report, Amazon.de – which is the largest online retailer in Germany - employed guards from the firm Hensel European Security Services (H.E.S.S.), which is headed by a man accused of having links to convicted neo-Nazis and soccer hooligans. Some say the name H.E.S.S. deliberately alludes to Adolf Hitler's deputy, Rudolf Hess.
The undercover investigation found that security guards conducted searches of the rooms of low-paid seasonal workers, most of them foreigners, allegedly telling them: “We are the police here." The guards also wore black boots and uniforms from designer Thor Steinar, whose clothes are closely associated with far-right politics in Germany. The federal government in Germany reportedly banned the sale of Steinar brand items because of its neo-Nazi associations, and Amazon itself banned the sale of its clothing in 2009.
Workers said the guards searched for pilfered breakfast food, and one woman told the documentary crew that she was confronted by a large, tattooed guard who told her to leave her shared apartment after using a wall heater to dry her clothes.
The report broadcast by the public television channel ARD also showed workers at the Amazon.de supply centers in Augsburg, Konstanz and Bad Hersfeld who said they were paid less than promised. Many of the Amazon workers have to walk over ten miles a day to get to their workplace. "They don't see any way of complaining," said a labor union representative. "They are all too frightened of being sent home without a job."
The program-makers, who booked in at one of the budget hotels where Amazon.de staff were housed, said they were arrested by H.E.S.S. Security guards after being caught using cameras. At the workplace, the report said, the guards were omnipresent and ready to frisk people to make sure workers do not take bread rolls from the canteen.
Amazon.de, which has a share of 25 percent of the German online retail business, has pledged to investigate the claims while H.E.S.S. rejected the allegations and said it had no links to neo-Nazis and far-right extremists. On Monday, Amazon said it had canceled with "immediate effect" its contract with H.E.S.S. “Amazon has a zero-tolerance limit for discrimination and intimidation and expects the same of other companies we work with,” company spokeswoman Ulrike Stöcker said in an email to the 'Associated Press'.
The affair has already triggered calls in Germany for a boycott of the online retailer.
Watch the TV documentary (in German) by clicking here.
