Danish pension fund Pædagogernes Pension has sold Amazon shares worth DKK 300m and excluded the company from its investments.

It stated that this decision was taken after several years of pressure on Amazon to improve its workers rights, including the right to unionise.

The pension fund explained that five years of dialogue to get Amazon to recognise the right of its employees to join a union, and negotiate wages and working conditions collectively, had not produced the desired result.

Pædagogernes Pension has therefore decided to exclude the company from its investments are “careful consideration”.

"With the decision to exclude Amazon, Pædagogernes Pension demonstrates that employee rights are a focus area for us, just as when we in its time excluded Walmart and Ryan Air," commented Pædagogernes Pension CEO, Sune Schackenfeldt.

"We are experiencing a company that practices anti-union business and opposes the will of the employees, i.e. by challenging the legitimacy of the few cases where the employees at Amazon's distribution centers have succeeded in obtaining a majority to join a union.”

Pædagogernes Pension said that investor demand for an independent third-party investigation had been put forward at several general meetings, but none of the requests had been successful.

"The door to Amazon has been hermetically closed, and it has not been possible to enter into a dialogue about the problematic behaviour they have,” Schackenfeldt added.

“But if Amazon's management opens the door, we would like to invest in the company again."

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