Amazon has created 2,000 jobs in Poland this year and is seeking to hire 10,000 workers for the holiday season, adding to its existing 18,000 employees, the firm has announced.
Reports also continue to suggest that the American e-commerce giant will soon set up a Polish platform, possibly in time for “Black Friday” on 27 November. Currently, its fulfilment centres in the country are used to serve other markets.
Commenting on the jobs Amazon is creating in Poland, the company’s regional director for operations, Marian Sepesi, said that he was “particularly proud that this has been achieved in such a challenging year”, reports Money.pl.
Like other e-retailers, Amazon has been boosted by a shift to online shopping during the pandemic. However, some of its workers in Poland have expressed concern over insufficient safety precautions to protect them from infection.
Unions representing Amazon workers in Poland have also previously threatened strikes over pay and working conditions. They claimed last year that Polish staff earn three times less than their counterparts in Germany but work longer hours, and called for salaries to be raised to 34 zloty (€7.4) per hour gross.
Amazon currently offers its workers in Poland a basic salary of “at least” 20 zloty (€4.4) per hour and a variable monthly premium of up to 15% based on individual and team results. Workers will also receive a holiday bonus of 4 zloty per hour between 8 November and 26 December, reports Business Insider.
In 2018, the labour inspectorate found irregularities related to health and safety, sanitary conditions and timely remuneration at Amazon‘s distribution centres in Poland. In response the government pledged to work with the firm to improve the situation, reported Bloomberg.
An @amazon worker in Poland has lost her job after publishing an account of the tough working conditions.
The day after publication she was informed that her temporary contract would not be renewed, despite having been told a few days earlier it would be https://t.co/aVfQvOVYfR
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) December 29, 2018
Since the start of this year, there have been reports that the e-commerce giant is preparing to enter the Polish market. Customers in Poland are currently able to order from Amazon, but must do so using the German, British or other branches of its service, which often entails higher postage costs.
In February, the Gazeta Wyborcza daily claimed to have learned of “advanced talks” taking place between Amazon and Poczta Polska, the Polish state postal service, which would reportedly carry out delivery of products from a Polish version of the Amazon website. It would serve customers in both Poland and neighbouring Ukraine.
Last month, another newspaper, Dziennik Gazeta Prawna, wrote that Amazon may launch its Polish e-commerce platform in time for “Black Friday” – the unofficial start of Christmas shopping season – on 27 November this year.
Amazon has operated in Poland since 2014. It now has nine fulfilment centres in the country, as well as the Amazon Technology Development Center in Gdańsk and the Amazon Web Services branch in Warsaw.
If it does not decide to establish a Polish sales platform, it will face tough competition from Allegro, the country’s existing e-commerce giant. Allegro this week listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange in what was Europe’s largest initial public offering this year and the biggest ever in Poland.
Allegro immediately surpassed video game developer CD Projekt to become the largest firm listed on the stock exchange. On Thursday morning Allegro had a market capitalisation of 78.9 billion zloty (€17.3 billion), compared with CD Projekt’s 36.4 billion zloty (€8 billion).
In Europe's biggest IPO this year, and largest ever in Poland, shares in Allegro jumped 65% after it listed on Warsaw's stock exchange today, giving the firm a market value of $17.4 billion and putting it ahead of CD Projekt as Poland’s largest listed firm https://t.co/kx1yWS1jyq
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) October 12, 2020
Main image credit: Amazon Poland/Facebook
Maria Wilczek is deputy editor of Notes from Poland. She is a regular writer for The Times, The Economist and Al Jazeera English, and has also featured in Foreign Policy, Politico Europe, The Spectator and Gazeta Wyborcza.
