Amazon is going to temporarily close its six warehouses in France after a court ordered it to stop all but essential deliveries.
An internal document sent to unions on Wednesday said the closures would last from Thursday until at least 20 April.
It added that it will use a state partial-unemployment scheme to pay the 10,000 workers employed at the warehouses, Reuters reported.
The company had been taken to court by a group of French trade unions.
On Tuesday a court in Nanterre ordered Amazon to limit deliveries to allow a thorough inspection into whether it was taking adequate precautions to protect its staff.
The court said Amazon had “failed to recognise its obligations regarding the security and health of its workers”. The company could have been fined €1m ($1.1m; £0.87m) per day if it had failed to comply.
In a statement released after the ruling, Amazon said: “We’re puzzled by the court ruling given the hard evidence brought forward regarding security measures put in place to protect our employees.”
The company added that it would appeal against the decision.
In the internal document sent to unions on Wednesday, it added: “The company is forced to suspend all production activities in all of its distribution centres in order to assess the inherent risks in the Covid-19 epidemic and take the necessary measures to ensure the safety of its employees.”