Amazon cuts links to company over security fears

The online retailer Amazon on Monday severed all contact with the security company whose guards are alleged to have worn clothing associated with neo-Nazis and intimidated immigrant temporary workers.

The announcement that Amazon had ceased its relationship with the company, Hensel European Security Services, or H.E.S.S., came days after a television documentary raised questions about Amazon’s treatment of foreign workers who had traveled to Germany to help fill the company’s crush of orders in the weeks before Christmas, the New York Times reported.

“Amazon has ceased its cooperation with the criticized security service with immediate effect,” said Ulrike Stöcker, a spokeswoman for the German division of the company. “Amazon has zero tolerance for discrimination and intimidation, and we expect the same of all companies that we work with.”

Labor Minister Ursula von der Leyen ordered an investigation into the subcontractor that brought people from across Europe to work in Amazon’s logistics center in Bad Hersfeld — one of seven the company runs in Germany, and the focus of the documentary broadcast on Wednesday by the ARD television network.

“The temp agency is under investigation, with an eye to remove its license if concrete violations are found,” Christina Wendt, a Labor Ministry spokeswoman, told reporters on Monday. She emphasized that Amazon was not a subject of the investigation that is to be completed by the end of this week.

According to the Federal Labor Agency, responsible for carrying out the investigation, the subcontractor in question, Trenkwalder, has been operating legally and without problem in Germany for more than a decade. The company, based in Austria, has not yet commented on the investigation.