Widow files complaint after prosecutors drop investigation into Amazon worker’s death in Poland

After prosecutors dropped their investigation into the death of an Amazon worker – the second at the same facility – his widow has filed an official complaint. Her case is being supported by a trade union that has regularly protested against conditions for Amazon workers in Poland.

In early September, 49-year-old Dariusz Dziamski, who worked at Amazon’s logistics centre in Sady near Poznań, reportedly felt pain in his chest at the start of his 6 a.m. shift. The long-time employee died soon after.

“My husband couldn’t breathe or speak, but the [team] leader didn’t allow him to take his facemask off,” Beata Dziamska, the widow of the deceased, said during a press conference organised yesterday in front of the prosecutor’s office in Poznań, quoted by RMF24.

She also claimed that the supervisor repeatedly refused to call a paramedic, and instead insisted on Dariusz walking to get treatment.

Dziamska has previously stated that her husband repeatedly raised concerns with his superiors about the heavy workload for staff at the warehouse, where she had also previously worked herself. “He died because he worked too hard,” she said yesterday, quoted by Onet.

However, prosecutors announced that they had dropped their investigation into the case. They said they found no evidence of a crime and that, according to experts’ opinion, Dziamski’s death was “natural”.

In response, Dziamska has filed an official complaint, supported by a trade union operating at the logistics centre called Employee Initiative (OZZ Inicjatywa Pracownicza).

They claim that the investigation was not exhaustive and that prosecutors refused to question witnesses who could testify to the excessive workload at Amazon and pressures put on workers. Dziamska also claims that the official cause of her husband’s death was changed in the course of the investigation.

“Ten days after his death I received the results of a post mortem stating that my husband died of a heart attack,” she recalled. “Two months later the prosecutor called me telling me it wasn’t a heart attack.”

“I won’t bring my husband back to life,” she said during yesterday’s conference. “But this isn’t the first fatality at Amazon,” she added, suggesting that something needs to be done to prevent further deaths.

In a statement sent to Notes from Poland, Amazon insisted that it is a “safe and responsible employer strictly following legal standards”, and that the firm is “proud of our working conditions”. It also emphasised that the incident involving Dziamski “happened before our employee had started his shift and was not work related”.

Łukasz Wawrzyniak, spokesman for the prosecutor’s office in Poznań, told the Polish Press Agency (PAP) that the investigation into the man’s death was closed since the investigators had concluded that no “unlawful act” was committed.

“The decision was based on the gathered evidence material, including testimonies of witnesses, documentation, CCTV footage, and to the greatest extent on the experts’ opinion, which indicated that the death was sudden and natural, caused by existing diseases,” said Wawrzyniak.

Piotr Krzyżaniak from Employee Initiative, however, claimed that Dziamski’s death “was not accidental” and said that his health problems had been exacerbated by being overworked at Amazon. “Prosecutors haven’t even taken these circumstances into account,” he claimed, quoted by Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.

“Since 2018 we have proof in the form of reports and research by the National Labour Inspectorate and reports from court experts stating that the work at Amazon is too heavy,” added Magda Malinowska, a former Amazon employee who now campaigns for better working conditions there.

Dziamski’s death followed another last year of a 40-year-old woman who collapsed during a night shift. Rescuers took almost an hour to reach her, by which time it was too late, reported Gazeta Wyborcza.

According to workers from the Sady warehouse, a shift lasts 10.5 hours, with two paid 20-minute breaks and a 35-minute unpaid meal break that needs to be worked off. They also said that pressure is added by constant monitoring by computers keeping track of every minute at the work station.

Amazon has operated in Poland since 2014. It now has ten fulfilment centres in the country, as well as the Amazon Technology Development Center in Gdańsk and the Amazon Web Services branch in Warsaw.

Amazon’s expansion in Poland has not, however, been without controversy. In 2018 and 2019, workers at its Polish facilities were involved in protests over pay and conditions. During the pandemic, employees also expressed concern over insufficient safety precautions to protect them from infection.

Main image credit: Lukasz Cynalewski / Agencja Gazeta

Agnieszka Wądołowska

Agnieszka Wądołowska is deputy editor of Notes from Poland. She has previously worked for Gazeta.pl and Tokfm.pl and contributed to Gazeta Wyborcza, Wysokie Obcasy, Duży Format, Midrasz and Kultura Liberalna