German Amazon workers called out on strike again

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German labour union Verdi

has called on workers at online retailer Amazon in

Germany to go on strike on Thursday as a long-running pay

dispute continues.

"Amazon is refusing talks about a wage agreement," Verdi

negotiator Joerg Lauenroth-Mago said in a statement, saying

workers at distribution centres in Leipzig and Bad Hersfeld were

to walk off the job starting with the morning shift.

Verdi wants Amazon to raise pay for workers at its

distribution centres in accordance with collective bargaining

agreements across the mail order and retail industry in Germany.

Amazon, however, has rejected the demand, arguing that it

regards warehouse staff as logistics workers and says they

receive above-average pay by the standards of that industry.

Online retail firms in Germany have struggled to shake off

an image of companies that relentlessly drive their workers

while paying them relatively little.

Zalando, Europe's biggest online fashion retailer, this week

issued a statement in defence of its logistics operations after a critical report by a German undercover journalist.

Amazon employs a total of 9,000 warehouse staff at nine

distribution centres in Germany - its second-biggest market

behind the United States - plus 14,000 seasonal workers.

Late last month hundreds of workers walked out at its site

in the eastern German city of Leipzig, and several centres were

hit by work stoppages in the run-up to Christmas last year.