IKEA France Accused of Spying on Workers

A French court has ordered IKEA to pay a $1.2 million fine for improperly gathering and storing data on its workers, reports Reuters.

Ingka Group, which owns the majority of IKEA stores globally, is accused of violating workers’ privacy by reviewing bank account records, paying to obtain police records and even creating fake employees to write disciplinary reports on staff.

“IKEA Retail France has strongly condemned the practices, apologised and implemented a major action plan to prevent this from happening again,” the Ingka group said.

According to representatives for France’s CGT union, IKEA used the information it gleaned to target union leaders or to settle customer disputes to its advantage.