Staff at Amazon's German distribution centres may strike over wages before Christmas.

The union Verdi is organising walkouts with its members, which could disrupt or even prevent distribution from its German centres, causing late deliveries.

Speaking to Der Spiegel on Sunday (October 6th) Verdi secretary Heiner Reimann said: "If I were Amazon I would not rely on being able to make all deliveries to customers on time before Christmas."

A report by Polish paper Puls Biznesu near the end of September suggested the company may be looking to expand away from Germany, potentially opening five centres in the Czech Republic and Poland.

Yet Germany is currently an important country for the US firm, which employs around 9,000 people across two customer service facilities, eight logistic centres.

Verdi wants a collective wage agreement based on the retail sector, job descriptions currently label staff as working in the logistics sector.

In response, a spokesperson for Amazon claimed previous strikes did not have an effect on deliveries, stating job descriptions for staff were "typical of the logistics industry" in areas including packaging, dispatch and storage.