Thu, 21 Feb 2013

Austrian staffing firm Trenkwalder has clarified its role in the supply of temporary workers to Amazon, after the online retailer cancelled the contract of a German security firm – reported to have ‘alleged neo-Nazi links’ – which is alleged to have harassed and intimidated temps.

In a statement on its website, posted originally in German and with an English translation produced, recruitment firm Trenkwalder says that the provision by its German subsidiary Trenkwalder Personaldienste of 1,000 employees to Amazon’s Seepark location over the Christmas period “only covered a small part of the needs” of the company – and that there were no claims or reproaches made against the company following the supply of the workers.

It also says that all workers, who were employed by Trenkwalder itself, were paid “with the statutory official wages at least”, with workers “at no disadvantage…in terms of their net salary” when compared with directly-employed workers.

It also notes that the controversial security, catering, transport and accommodation provision for the workers was handled by separate organisations, and that it “does not have any business relation with any of these service providers”.

Amazon did not immediately respond to Recruiter’s question of how many staffing firms were involved in supply to Seepark, or whether it was aware of any official complaints being raised against any recruiters involved.