Amazon France Logistique (AFL) was sentenced, Tuesday January 23, to a fine of 32 million euros by the National Commission for Information Technology and Liberties (Cnil) for “its activity and performance monitoring system excessively intrusive employees”, according to a press release from the body.
For the CNIL, the collection of data carried out by the subsidiary of the American online distribution giant, via scanners used by warehouse employees to process packages, constitutes an “excessive activity and performance monitoring system “. These scanners record inactivity times of more than ten minutes or the rate of package processing “to the nearest second”, notes the CNIL.
A fine equivalent to 3% of turnover
The French privacy watchdog sanctioned AFL on the basis of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and imposed a fine equivalent to around 3% of the French company’s turnover. A sanction “almost unprecedented on the percentage of turnover”, she underlined to AFP, the maximum incurred being 4%. Three indicators recorded by the scanners and transmitted to managers particularly moved the control body.
The “stow machine gun” which notes when an item is scanned “too quickly”, in less than 1.25 seconds, and the “idle time” which signals a period of inactivity of a scanner for more than ten minutes . Another indicator measures the time elapsed “between the moment when the employee badged at the entrance to the site” and when he scanned his first package, the CNIL further explained to AFP.
The body considers that this system leads employees to justify any interruption, even “of three or four minutes”, of the activity of its scanner, thus putting “continuous pressure on them”.
An appeal to the Council of State?
“We strongly disagree with the CNIL’s conclusions which are factually incorrect and we reserve the right to appeal,” responded an Amazon spokesperson in a press release. The group has two months to file an appeal before the Council of State.
Several thousand employees are affected by these indicators, notes the CNIL, which opened a procedure in 2019 following press articles and complaints from employees. The CNIL also singled out AFL for not having sufficiently informed its employees about its video surveillance system. She told AFP “reserves the possibility of carrying out new checks”.