Amazon sacks staff 'for supporting gilets jaunes'

The CGT union has called on Internet retailer Amazon to reinstate several workers in France it had fired due to their support for the gilets jaunes protests at some of its sites, according to reports.

It is believed 10 employees have been handed their papers 'for serious misconduct' and for 'behaviour in total opposition to the company's values', according to letters seen and published in part by daily newspaper Le Parisien, after they had expressed their support for the gilets jaunes protests on various social networks.

The union said the dismissals were intended to 'make them exemplary cases and deter others from taking action'.

One worker who was fired had planned to picket a neighbouring warehouse in the Nord department, the paper said. Another was let go from an Amazon depot in Montélimar after posting a message on Facebook in support of protesters blocking access to the site.

In excerpts of the letters printed by Le Parisien, the workers were told that their actions, constituted a 'serious breach of … duty of loyalty'.

"These people were fired because they did not respect their contractual obligations," an Amazon spokesman said.