General Director of Amazon in France, Frédéric Duval joined the e-commerce giant seventeen years ago. As it became part of the daily lives of millions of Internet users, the company considerably expanded its logistics network in France, and its workforce. It is now striving to improve its image in terms of working conditions.
L’Express: What is Amazon’s footprint in France in terms of employment?
Frédéric Duval: Amazon is closely linked to France. We have invested more than 20 billion euros in the country since 2010. And we paid 580 million euros in taxes last year, for 10.5 billion euros in turnover. Our workforce today stands at 20,000 permanent employees. But we are also at the origin of 42,000 indirect jobs among our service providers or subcontractors. As for our marketplace activity, it generates 35,000 jobs among French VSEs and SMEs who sell in our stores. In total, Amazon represents, directly or indirectly, nearly 100,000 jobs in France and we are very proud of it.
Added to this are activity bubbles, such as the Christmas period which is approaching and which will lead us to recruit 6,500 temporary workers, in all French regions, from Hauts-de-France to the Grand Est, including Occitanie, Brittany or Normandy.
These seasonal jobs allow thousands of employees to join the company, discover our professions – there are 400 different ones – and, who knows, start a career with us. Amazon is growing: we are therefore inclined to establish a good number of temporary workers. The deputy director of one of our distribution centers, for example, started her career with us with a seasonal job. More generally, our brand image is good, we have no difficulty recruiting.
How have logistics professions evolved in recent years, due to digitalization and the advent of information systems?
Robotics is increasingly present, with increasing technicality that our employees must assimilate in our logistics sites, whether in our 8 distribution centers, our 3 sorting centers or our 26 delivery agencies in the regions, hence Then the vans leave which go to our customers. I recently participated in the Amazon School’s graduation ceremony in Paris: nearly 400 employees, who followed accelerated, free and qualifying training at Amazon, were awarded a diploma in logistics recognized by the State, from BEP/CAP to Bac pro level. These are often technical training courses but some are more academic. Our recruitment processes are not closed, based on studies or specific profiles. We first look for desire, potential and a certain passion for the client in candidates. In return, we train them and guarantee them professional development within the company.
Amazon recently presented in the United States a humanoid robot, Digit, which transports empty bins into a warehouse to store them in cabinets. How can you convince some of your employees that they will not be replaced tomorrow by machines of this order?
The past speaks for itself. When I joined Amazon in 2006, there were 75 employees at the Boigny-sur-Bionne warehouse, near Orléans, and 19 in Paris. Today, there are more than 20,000 of us throughout France, while we have introduced increasingly sophisticated robots into all our sites. Automation is not the enemy of employment, it is even the opposite because it prevents employees from carrying out repetitive and arduous tasks, such as carrying heavy loads or long walks, and allows them , ultimately, to concentrate on more complex missions with higher added value, such as quality control for example.
We recently commissioned Ifop to conduct a study among employees of our warehouses in France: 81% would recommend their loved ones to work at Amazon. Compared to the Ifop standard for employees in the public and private sectors in France, this is 20 points more than the national average.
The conclusions of a report commissioned by the company’s Social and Economic Committee from the Progexa firm were revealed a few days ago by AFP. We learn that the number of work accidents resulting in lost time has more than doubled in 2022, going from 482 incidents to 1,132. Or that the rate of absenteeism, considered “alarming”, stands at 15.9%. What do these figures inspire you?
We speak regularly with trade union organizations and we take our role as an employer extremely seriously. Amazon offers a safe and modern working environment. Our salaries are competitive, our benefits are excellent.
We have invested 25 million euros since 2022 to improve the safety and well-being of our employees. However, I consider that any incident is one incident too many. We are part of a process of continuous improvement, to ensure that safety is at the heart of our action. Afterwards, the maturity of one site compared to another can play a role.
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