Amazon warehouse employees who transfer the retailer’s merchandise throughout Prime Day get harm — so much.
That is one of many key findings from a preliminary report from the US Senate’s Well being, Training, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee launched on Tuesday.
The report is the results of a yearlong investigation into what it is wish to work at Amazon’s warehouses.
Amongst HELP’s findings was that, throughout Amazon’s Prime Day purchasing occasion in 2019, the tech and retail large reported 10 accidents per 100 warehouse employees to the US Occupational Security and Well being Administration. Prime Day, which ends up in a excessive quantity of orders, is happening July 16 and 17 this 12 months.
That price represents the accidents that Amazon is legally required to report back to the federal government. It is also already “greater than double the business common,” the committee wrote.
“However this quantity doesn’t inform the complete story,” the preliminary outcomes learn. The committee estimates that the actual price at Amazon’s warehouses is 45 accidents per 100 employees.
“That’s practically half of the corporate’s warehouse employees,” the report reads.
Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel mentioned the report “attracts sweeping and inaccurate conclusions primarily based on unverified anecdotes, and it misrepresents paperwork which can be a number of years outdated and contained factual errors and defective evaluation.”
Amazon pushed again on a declare within the report that mentioned it was “not adequately staffed for busy purchasing durations,” as an illustration.
The report is additional proof that working in Amazon’s warehouses can include dangers for workers.
A 2022 investigation by BI, as an illustration, discovered that Amazon warehouse employees had been extra more likely to develop musculoskeletal accidents than their counterparts at related amenities not owned by Amazon, primarily based on information from Washington state.
Final month, regulators in California fined Amazon for undisclosed quotas that the regulators mentioned “employees to elevated strain to work quicker and may result in increased damage charges.”
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