A COUNTY Durham man has slammed Amazon after his request to change his interview time in order to commemorate Remembrance Sunday was refused.

The man, who asked not to be named, criticised the retailer's "appalling response" after applying for a temporary role to work at Amazon Durham, near Bowburn.

The retailer has since apologised for the "misjudgment" of timing and for any offence caused.

The Shildon man, who applied to work at the site at the beginning of the month, had been given a video interview slot of 11am on Sunday.

But after raising concerns that this coincided with the two-minute silence, he was told that the interview would not be able to take place.

In an email from Amazon, which was seen by The Northern Echo, he was told: "A company this big has more than 30 people to interview today.

"If each one decide to change five minutes of their interview, in the end of the day everything will be a chaos.

"For you it's just five minutes, for me (it) will be hours of delay with lots of candidates."

But stating his disappointment towards Amazon's recruitment process, the man told the firm that he had been left "appalled" by the response and confirmed he would not be attending the interview at 11am.

He said he later received an email claiming that the team member "did not know" the importance of Remembrance Sunday in the UK and that they had not "received any instruction about it".

Speaking to The Northern Echo after the email, he said: "In the end I decided to just leave it, and not bother going back.

"I think that it is shocking that a company as big as Amazon could not take two minutes out of the day to hold thought on Remembrance Sunday."

In response, a spokesperson for Amazon apologised for the experience and said its team member had made a misjudgement.

The spokesperson said: “One of our team members made a misjudgement about the timing of the interview and we have apologised for any offence caused.”

It comes as Amazon revealed in September that it was recruiting for more than 2,000 seasonal jobs across its Durham and Darlington 'Fufilment Centres'.

At the time the jobs were revealed, Councillor Simon Henig, who is the leader of Durham County Council, welcomed the promise of thousands of new jobs to residents across the North-East.

Amazon is looking for 2,000 seasonal workers at Durham and Darlington warehouses

Cllr Henig said: "This is particularly important at the moment, when our focus is on ensuring the local and regional economy is able to recover from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

“We have carried out significant infrastructure improvements at Integra 61 and worked hard to promote its many benefits to potential investors.

"It is very gratifying that this effort is now paying off," he added.