The Sunday work on two Advent days at Amazon site in North Rhine-Westphalia two years ago was illegal according to a court ruling. The Düsseldorf administrative Court thus held a lawsuit by Ver. di trade union. The Düsseldorf district government had allowed shipper to have his employees work on 13 and 20 December 2015.

It is not clear to court that "Amazon would have suffered so much damage without approval of Sunday work that it would have been able to outweigh interest in preserving Sunday rest," court said. The Christmas business is usually order-strong and does not constitute a "deviating special situation". Amazon, on or hand, had brought about delivery pressure itself, for example through tightly measured delivery times and a same-day delivery promise, same day delivery. The mail order company had failed to design his business model in pre-Christmas period in such a way that Sundays and public holidays were maintained.

The company shared with Amazon-Germany regret court's decision. The examination is to be made as soon as court has passed written judgement, a spokeswoman said. Amazon can appeal against judgment at Supreme Administrative Court of state of North Rhine-Westphalia in Münster.

Last year, re had been strikes in Amazon site Rheinberg again and again. Ver. Di calls for payment according to collective agreements of retail and mail order trade. Amazon repeatedly emphasizes that it already pays at top of what is common for similar activities. Amazon has been criticized several times for its working conditions.

Date Of Update: 16 January 2018, 12:02