Dortmund: A delegation of seven members of the European Parliament’s Employment Committee planned an Amazon warehouse visit for 26 October 2026, with a second stop in Katowice, Poland, the next day. The trip is the first of its kind since Amazon cancelled a fact-finding mission for lawmakers in December 2023.

According to the programme published by the UNI Europa trade union federation, the group was due to tour sites in Dortmund and Mönchengladbach in Germany before travelling to Katowice on 27 October. The delegation includes the committee chair, Li Andersson. The visit follows years of friction between the company and Parliament over access to its logistics centres.

Amazon employs more than 150,000 people in the European Union, which makes the company one of the largest private employers in the warehouse sector. Unions say that working conditions inside the centres are shaped by software that tracks productivity in real time. That makes the Amazon warehouse visit a test case for how lawmakers see algorithmic management up close.

The figures cited by labour groups are stark. In a January 2023 survey, 51 percent of warehouse workers said that monitoring harmed their health, and 57 percent said it harmed their mental health. Those numbers come from worker surveys rather than company data, and Amazon has disputed characterisations of its sites in the past.

The timing is not accidental. The Commission is preparing new rules on job quality that are expected to touch automated monitoring and decision-making at work, and members of the Employment Committee want first-hand evidence before they take positions. An Amazon warehouse visit gives them a chance to see how scanners, pick rates and break schedules operate on the floor, rather than relying on written submissions.

Germany and Poland make a useful pair for the trip. Both countries host large fulfilment centres, yet their labour laws and union traditions differ. Works councils have a statutory role in German workplaces, while Poland’s arrangements differ, so comparing the two settings can show where EU-level rules would change the most.

The 2023 cancellation still shapes the mood. The company cancelled the earlier mission. Agreeing to the new Amazon warehouse visit suggests that the company now prefers to engage while rules are still being drafted, although the terms of access, such as whether staff can speak freely to MEPs, will matter as much as the visit itself.

What happens next will depend on what the delegation reports. Members are expected to brief the full committee, and their findings could feed amendments when draft legislation arrives in Parliament. Unions hope the trip leads to binding limits on automated surveillance, while employers will argue that data-driven management raises safety and efficiency. Whatever the outcome, the Amazon warehouse visit puts the debate about monitoring at work in front of the lawmakers who will vote on it.