Infringements of health and safety laws were found at four in five distribution centres visited by government inspectors last year, the NRC
Infringements of health and safety laws were found at four of five distribution centres visited by government inspectors last year, the NRC reported on Wednesday.
The report, which has not yet been officially published, concludes that distribution centres broke safety rules, ignored coronavirus measures – such as social distancing – and offered work which was physically or mentally too demanding, the paper said.
In total, 200 distribution centres were inspected and problems were found at 163. The inspectors halted work 20 times because of the ‘serious danger’ facing workers, often involving high shelving where they had to pick stock.
The Netherlands has some 9,000 distribution centres, covering 40 million square metres. Many of the staff come from Eastern Europe, mainly Poland and Romania, on short term contracts.
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