Amazon warehouses hit by strikes in Germany over pay dispute as Christmas Day 2015 looms

Hundreds of Amazon workers in Germany are continuing their strike as part of a long-standing dispute over pay and work conditions. The employees are members of the Verdi (or Ver.Di) union, which has more than two million members, and made the move after claiming the online retail giant would not agree to collective bargaining talks.

The walkout is expected to last until Christmas Eve (24 December) at Amazon's warehouses in Rheinberg, Werne, Graden and Koblenz.

"Amazon refuses to this day to engage in collective bargaining. The company will continue to dictate working conditions autocratically and arbitrarily and thus gains a competitive advantage at the expense of collective loyal trading company and the Amazon employees," said Stefanie Nutzenberger, a Verdi official.

But Amazon, which has a workforce of around 10,000 full-time staff in Germany and has recruited another 10,000 temporary workers for the festive period, said the industrial action would not impact on the firm's service. "There is absolutely no impact on our customer delivery promise. The vast majority of our employees are working," a spokeswoman for the US company told Reuters.

The latest action from Verdi members comes after Amazon workers in Germany staged strikes in 2014 around Christmas and carried out a similar protest in 2013.

Amazon had not responded to a request for comment from IBTimes UK at the time of publication.