An Amazon success middle in Bessemer, Ala. A Senate investigation discovered that Amazon staff had been practically twice as prone to be injured in comparison with staff at different warehouses within the business.
Patrick T. Fallon/AFP by way of Getty Images
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Patrick T. Fallon/AFP by way of Getty Images
A Senate committee investigation accused the nation’s largest on-line retailer Amazon of placing staff prone to harm within the title of velocity — whereas manipulating office harm information to painting its warehouses as safer than they honestly are.
The findings had been launched late Sunday by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension (HELP) Committee, led by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.
The report stems from an 18-month investigation that reviewed seven years of Amazon office harm information and interviewed over 130 Amazon staff.
It discovered that regardless of Amazon’s claims of protected working circumstances, firm information confirmed that its warehouses have “considerably larger” harm charges than each the business common and non-Amazon warehouses.
More particularly, over the previous seven years, Amazon staff had been practically twice as prone to be injured in comparison with staff at different warehouses within the sector. The report additionally present in 2023, Amazon warehouses recorded greater than 30% extra accidents than the business common.
It concluded that Amazon staff had been put in hurt’s manner by being pressured to work at “an especially quick and infrequently harmful tempo.” Although the corporate has security protocols, the report mentioned “the corporate’s required charges make these procedures practically unattainable to observe.”
“Amazon’s continued and day by day endangerment of the nation’s second largest private-sector workforce should finish. The United States Congress can not enable any firm to deal with its staff as disposable,” the report mentioned.
On Monday, Amazon rejected the investigation’s findings, asserting that the corporate has made important security enhancements over time, even whereas client demand has surged.
“This investigation wasn’t a fact-finding mission, however slightly an try to gather data and twist it to assist a false narrative,” the corporate mentioned in an announcement.
This will not be the primary time Amazon has confronted accusations of harm charges that far exceed the business common — which the corporate has described as flawed. Amazon has claimed its true harm charge is simply “barely above” the typical.
On Sunday, the congressional report rejected Amazon’s protection, arguing that the corporate’s comparisons are deceptive. The report mentioned Amazon compares its warehouses of all sizes to the business common for under giant warehouses (these with 1,000 or extra staff) which tends to have larger harm charges — thus making Amazon’s harm charge seem decrease. Many Amazon warehouses make use of fewer than 1,000 folks
“If the harm charge at Amazon’s warehouses was in comparison with the typical harm charge for the entire nation’s warehouses — as an alternative of simply these included within the firm’s most popular subcategory — Amazon’s security document would look rather more troubling,” the investigation discovered.
Amazon mentioned on Monday it stood by its methodology in evaluating harm charges.
The report additionally accused Amazon of discouraging injured staff from searching for exterior medical care. After reviewing citations, hazard alerts from federal inspectors and testimony from injured staff and security personnel, the investigation discovered that Amazon’s on-site well being services “hinder” staff from getting needed care past first support.
“The employees do that by blaming staff for his or her accidents, failing to acquire knowledgeable consults, and refusing to refer staff to exterior care,” the report mentioned.
The HELP panel is the most recent group to accuse Amazon of unsafe working circumstances.
Last yr, the Occupational Safety and and Health Administration discovered that the actions that some Amazon warehouse staff carry out — together with twisting, bending and lengthy reaches as a lot as 9 occasions per minute — put them at excessive danger for decrease again accidents and different musculoskeletal problems.
Sunday’s congressional report additionally discovered instances of staff affected by “power ache, lack of mobility, short-term and everlasting disabilities, and diminished high quality of life” on account of accidents sustained in Amazon warehouses.
Amazon is amongst NPR’s latest monetary supporters.
