[ad_1]
Hired truck guards in former Soviet bloc countries told The Guardian they had been instructed to trick tachographs, which record their working hours, so they could travel illegally long and unsafe distances in Western Europe.
Driving a truck is traditionally considered a high-paying job, strictly regulated by public safety, and Amazon, which flourished during the pandemic and is now worth around $ 1.7 billion, claims that all of its suppliers must pay fair wages for adequate working hours.
However, testimonials from three drivers, Olek Shevchenko from Ukraine, Arip Sidikkhodya from Uzbekistan and Ihar Peratoka from Belarus, raise questions about the conditions of Amazon’s supply chain.
The man claims to have experienced similar abuse while working on Amazon parcel deliveries at Hegelmann, a large European group of several shipping companies with revenues of more than 600 million euros. The companies belonging to the group operate as independent legal entities.
The Hegelmann-owned Lithuanian company owns 700 trucks and hires drivers to work on Lithuanian contracts. The company takes them by minibus to Western Europe, where they continue to make international deliveries from Amazon and other European retailers on behalf of the German-registered company Hegelmann.
The Netherlands Transport Workers’ Union (VNB) claimed that Hegelmann had been repeatedly involved in its investigations and that workers from several countries had made similar allegations about tachograph records and unpaid wages.
Amazon
“The data we receive is shocking and we believe Hegelmann’s actions violate the most important and fundamental principles of European worker safety and fair business competition,” said DNO Chief Investigator Edwin.
According to him, the union will inform the police about it.
Siegfried Hegelmann, owner and CEO of the Hegelmann Group, has stated that his company will not tolerate misconduct and will investigate all suspected cases of tachograph fraud.
An Amazon spokesperson said: “All of our partners are required to comply with applicable laws and the Amazon Supplier Code of Conduct, which focuses on fair pay, benefits, adequate hours of work and compensation. We will take immediate action if we discover that a partner does not meet these requirements. “
As The Guardian knows, Amazon is currently terminating its contractual agreements with Hegelmann.
“We work with a variety of carriers that ship through our logistics network, and these allegations in no way reflect the high standards that we set for our partners,” Amazon added, emphasizing that Hegelmann also works with other retailers and represents a small margin. Part of Amazon’s business.
Uzbek driver A. Sidikkhodja said he was hired by the Tashkent agency and took away the $ 1,000 fee he paid because he hoped the best salary he would receive in Europe would offset all costs.
In a contract with A. Sidikkhodja, Hegelmann promised 1.3 times more than the Lithuanian minimum wage (at that time about 720 euros per month). He himself declares to have verbally accepted that he will initially receive a salary of € 500, which later amounts to € 2,000, but it is said that he has never been paid more than € 1,500.
In a contract with A. Sidikkhodja, Hegelmann promised 1.3 times more than the Lithuanian minimum wage (at that time about 720 euros per month). He himself verbally declares that he will initially receive a salary of € 500, which later amounts to € 2,000, but has never received more than € 1,500.
Mr Sidikkhodja claimed that Hegelmann would give him a replacement tachograph in case it was clear that he would have to work illegally many hours to complete the journey and then take the replacement tachograph with him so that the transport police could not find it in the truck.
Safety rules require drivers to rest from work at regular intervals. In a document seen by The Guardian, Mr. Sidikkhodja receives two nights at Hegelmann’s house in Hannover. However, Sidikkhodja said that he never missed a night at the hotel.
Rather, he describes long hours of work with another Uzbek driver: the men showered on the road with cold water and exercised so that while one slept in the cab, the other stayed awake.
“Amazon”
Hegelmann claims to encourage drivers to spend the night at a hotel chain specifically designed for legal rest. The company says that while drivers are billed for hotel nights that may have been missed outside the hotel, the EU does not require verification of where drivers are staying.
The Guardian further writes that the Ukrainian driver O. Shevchenko was employed through an online advertisement and lived in a dormitory in Kaunas for several weeks while awaiting the driver’s clearance, and was later taken to Western Europe by minibus.
This summer, 18 cases of coronavirus were recorded among Uzbek drivers in Hegelmann Kaunas’ bedroom. Although the people who tested positive were isolated, other asymptomatic drivers who lived in dormitories with them were expelled from all over Europe.
Hegelmann claims that Lithuanian law did not require the men to be quarantined, and that the company later reported and cooperated with German authorities when the drivers eventually fell ill with Covid-19.
Labor laws require drivers to be paid in the country in which they work. However, the three Hegelmann drivers say they have never worked in Lithuania, despite being hired and employed through the Hegelmann agency in Kaunas; in fact, they worked in Western European countries, where the minimum wage is higher than in Lithuania.
Hegelmann claims that all pay rules were followed and that the EU driver shortage, rather than lower wages, led to the hiring of new employees through Lithuania.
The Guardian saw a copy of a statement made to the Belgian police by Mr. Peratoka, stating that since 2017 he joined Hegelmann, only spending the night in his cabin. In an interview with The Guardian, the man also said that he had been issued false hotel bills and that he was aware of the reversal of the tachograph.
Peratoka said he was effectively trapped in Western Europe during the coronavirus pandemic because Hegelmann refused to release him after an agreed period of driving, despite repeated requests to return home.
Finally, in June, the Belgian authorities intervened and made sure that the man returned to Lithuania and that Hegelmann paid him what he had promised. Hegelmann responded that closing the walls during the pandemic had hampered the release of drivers and that the pandemic had affected median wages. The company added that one of the drivers had been paid ahead of schedule because his truck had been stopped by Belgian police.
“Hegelmann hires employees from a variety of countries and strives to ensure that all working conditions are comfortable, understandable and the same for all members of a multicultural team,” said Siegfried Hegelmann, adding that his company is “open and transparent “. “We will solve all problems in accordance with the relevant legislation and cooperate with the responsible authorities.”
It is strictly forbidden to use the information published by DELFI on other websites, in the media or elsewhere, or to distribute our material in any way without consent, and if consent has been obtained, it is necessary to indicate DELFI as the source.
[ad_2]
