Employees of online retailer Amazon protest during a strike in Leipzig, Germany on May 14, 2013.
Amazon employees in Germany have staged a strike to put pressure on the internet retailer to improve pay and benefits for its workers.
The services sector union Verdi said about 850 workers at two logistics centers of the American retailer in Bad Hersfeld and Leipzig have launched a one-day work stoppage on Tuesday.
The union Verdi is calling for Amazon to pay its 9,000 employees in Germany according to a sector-wide wage deal for the retail and mail-order industries.
Verdi has asked for a minimum hourly wage of 10.66 euros, compared with currently 9.30 euros, for staff at the Leipzig center.
For those working at the Bad Hersfeld center, the union wants the current pay of 9.83 euro to be increased to 12.18 euro.
However, the head of Amazon Germany, Ralf Kleber, recently rejected the demands in media.
Å“We are counting on a dispute which could last for a while. Amazon so far has shown that they are unwilling to negotiate. They are willing to talk but they are unwilling to negotiate. So we are preparing for an open-ended strike,” said union representative Heiner Reimann.
The union said 97 percent of its staff at the warehouses have voted in favor of the strike.
Working conditions at Amazon in Germany has come under scrutiny earlier this year as the company was accused of bringing workers in from crisis-hit European countries.
A television documentary alleged that the Amazon employees were paid less than promised and that they experienced bullying by security staff, who regularly searched the workersâ„¢ belongings in the temporary housing the retailer had provided them.
CAH/PR
This article originally appeared on : Press TV