Our goal is to be earth’s best employer: How does that fit in with the current reporting of the RTL program “Team Wallraff” on September 9, 2021? Not at all, because the show conveys a highly distorted picture of reality. There are two sides to every story – and each side should get the chance to tell it.
This is exactly what we missed in the program. The picture painted here does not correspond to the experiences of the thousands of Amazon employees and partner companies in Germany who process and deliver customer orders every day. We know we are not perfect. We are constantly working to improve.
But in fact, we employ almost 20,000 permanent staff in our fulfilment network in Germany. About 90 percent of them give their job experience a five-star rating in recent surveys. We have set an entry wage of at least €12 plus extras and offer the Career Choice program which pays for up to 95% of tuition fees to help our employees progress in their chosen careers. After 24 months, Amazon employees earn an average wage of around 2,750 euros gross per month, including restricted stock units and other extras.
It is also a fact that we cooperate with more than 600 German carriers, hundreds of delivery service partners and many other partners who employ thousands of people through our logistics network.
We evaluate feedback on our working conditions and conduct regular audits of our delivery partners – because we attach great importance to fair conditions there, too. In the very rare cases where we become aware of a problem, we take immediate action, which can go as far as terminating the cooperation.
Unfortunately, the TV station did not provide us with details on a number of allegations before broadcasting. Now we have more information about the anecdotes presented in the broadcast we will investigate and take appropriate action as necessary.
At the same time, we are already a top employer: We don’t always get everything right, but we’re proud of our working conditions, the pay and benefits we offer, and the way we invent and invest in technology to further our journey to be the world’s safest and best employer. We encourage everyone to come and see for themselves – the doors to our sites are open for virtual visitor tours: sign up here. It’s always better to talk to the people who work under our conditions: our colleagues.
When it comes to returns, there is only one reason why we send products to return centers located across borders: to extend the lifecycle of the products. Suggesting otherwise is simply wrong. Amazon also complies with its duty of care for the goods we distribute. Every return center specializes in certain product groups and has the specialists, processes, and tools to give as many products as possible a second life. And to say we choose not to donate unsold items to charity is also wrong. We have worked with local food banks across the country and donated 1.5 million unsold products to people in need in 2020 alone.

Responses to individual points of the reporting