Injuries to warehouse workers: Amazon ignored internal recommendations

The US company Amazon has rejected internal recommendations to reduce the productivity rates of its warehouse workers in order to curb injuries. This is according to a report published on Sunday by a US Senate committee. Employee representatives have long complained that Amazon's strict production quotas lead to high injury rates among the online retailer's warehouse workers. Amazon has repeatedly rejected the criticism.

The 160-page report by the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions in the US Senate, which is chaired by Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders from Vermont, now reveals that Amazon itself has documented the link between its quotas and increased injury rates. The report refers to two internal investigations conducted by Amazon into the causes of injuries in warehouses after they rose sharply in 2019. According to the report, Amazon's health and safety personnel recommended relaxing the enforcement of production quotas to reduce injury rates. An Amazon study recommended that the company should use software to track employees' work pace and prescribe additional breaks. This should limit the number of repetitive movements and keep employees below a critical threshold. However, senior Amazon executives rejected this, according to the report, apparently concerned about the impact on the company's bottom line. The report concludes that Amazon has accepted "injuries to its employees as a cost of doing business". Injury rates at Amazon are said to be almost double the industry average.

"The shockingly dangerous working conditions in Amazon's warehouses revealed in this 160-page report are beyond unacceptable," the New York Times quotes Sanders as saying. "Amazon's executives have repeatedly chosen to prioritize profits over the health and safety of their employees by ignoring recommendations that would significantly reduce the number of injuries."

Amazon rejects committee's findings

In a blog post published on Monday, Amazon rejects the contents of the report and accuses Committee Chairman Sanders of misleading the US public. "While we respect Senator Sanders and his work as Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, the Senator has issued yet another report that is based on false facts and contains selective, outdated information that lacks context and is not based in reality," the statement reads.

Amazon says it has spent hundreds of millions of dollars in recent years to improve security, which has led to a decrease in injury rates, as the company detailed in a blog post as recently as March. Also, according to the New York Times, the company has long claimed to have no strict or "fixed" quotas, only performance goals that are evaluated over longer periods of time and take into account factors beyond just productivity. However, according to the New York Times, Amazon employees have complained for years that they are warned or disciplined if they fail to complete a certain number of tasks per hour. The Senate committee report confirms this. The report also states that Amazon makes it difficult for its employees to receive appropriate medical care in the event of injury. Amazon also rejects this allegation.

The Senate committee's investigation recommends the passage of a series of bills that would, among other things, force Amazon to disclose workplace productivity rates and strengthen the sanctions and enforcement powers of regulators.

Threat of strike at Amazon warehouse in Staten Island

Meanwhile, workers at an Amazon warehouse in Staten Island in the US state of New York voted to strike last Friday if the company is not prepared to set dates for contract negotiations. This was reported by the US tech portal The Verge. The workers are demanding that Amazon recognize their union and negotiate better working conditions and wages. They had called on Amazon to agree to a negotiation date by yesterday, December 15, otherwise the company risks a strike by the more than 5,500 workers at its delivery center on Staten Island in the middle of the Christmas season.

The independent US federal agency responsible for monitoring and enforcing labor relations between employers and employees, the National Labor Relations Board, alleged in 2022 that Amazon "repeatedly violated the law by threatening, surveilling and interrogating workers in Staten Island who attempted to unionize," according to The Verge. Workers at the Amazon warehouse in Staten Island voted to unionize at the time and joined Teamsters, one of the largest US unions. Amazon, on the other hand, does not recognize the unions.

In Germany, too, there is trouble among Amazon employees. At the end of November, several hundred of them from all over Germany staged a warning strike and rally in Bad Hersfeld, Hesse, to protest against what they see as unfair working conditions and the lack of collective bargaining at the company. It was about "good and healthy work", co-determination and a legally secure collective agreement, explained Verdi board member Silke Zimmer at the rally. According to Verdi, Amazon employees report enormous pressure to perform, exhausting work intensification and surveillance in the workplace. This creates a climate of fear, especially in the logistics centers.

(akn)