WASHINGTON — The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited multiple Amazon facilities as failing to keep workers safe, including a Shodak fulfillment center and a New Windsor delivery station, OSHA said Wednesday.
An investigation found that Amazon had exposed employees to unsafe conditions at six facilities in New York, Illinois, Florida, Colorado, and Idaho. In all of it, OSHA investigators found that Amazon workers were at increased risk of injury from lifting loads and heavy objects, jerky twisting, bending, stretching, and working long hours. Did.
Federal investigations into Amazon facilities in Florida, Illinois and New Windsor, New York began in July following referrals by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and numerous worker complaints. In August, OSHA opened inspections in Shodak, New York; Aurora, Colorado; and Nampa, Idaho.
OSHA also reviewed on-site injury records and found that Amazon employees experienced a high rate of injuries. His DART rate (the number of injuries and illnesses per 100 full-time employees that resulted in lost work time, work restrictions, or transfers due to injuries) for warehouses in New York and Florida is higher than industry averages per 100 workers. It was three times the injury 4.7. Doug Parker, OSHA’s assistant secretary of labor, said in a statement to the Associated Press last month.
In New Windsor, the DART rate was 14.7, according to public data on workplace injuries that Amazon submitted to OSHA in 2021 and was shared with the Times Union by the Strategic Organizing Center, a federation of trade unions. At the Shodak facility in the village of Castleton-on-Hudson, the rate was 19.7 per 100 workers, the highest of all 308 facilities for which Amazon provided data.
Amazon dismissed OSHA’s findings and said it would appeal.
Amazon spokeswoman Kelly Nantel said the OSHA citation “does not reflect the reality of the safety of our site,” adding: He saw a nearly 15% drop in injury rates in the U.S. between 2019 and 2021, according to publicly available data. ”
However, an independent analysis of the injury data Amazon submitted to OSHA found that the company’s overall injury rate increased by 20% from 2020 to 2021, according to a report from the Center for Strategic Organizations. Amazon has previously admitted that its warehouse worker injury rate is higher than that of its industry peers, but has said it has invested millions of dollars in improving its safety record.
The e-commerce giant is the second-largest employer in the United States, earning $33 billion in 2021 and faces fines of $46,875 for violations at Aurora, Nampa and Shodak facilities, as well as work-related You could face $29,008 for not keeping proper records. Injuries and illnesses as part of the same investigation.
“It’s pocket change for them,” said Heather Goodall, an employee at Amazon’s facility in Shodak. “We don’t care what money you’re paying. We care about these changes being implemented.”
In a statement provided to the Times Union, Amazon claimed musculoskeletal disorders were the most common workplace injury in its warehouses and “all industries”, and said the federal government had asked employers to identify specific human injuries. It decried not providing engineering guidance and said it worked to deploy robots to handle repetitive tasks, such as reducing muscle damage.
“Life is cheap for Amazon,” said Seth Goldstein, a partner at Julian Miller, Cingula & Goldstein, which represents the Amazon union. “I don’t understand why they are still getting tax cuts when they are violating labor protections for workers.”
“Amazon has no incentive to comply with the law,” Goldstein added. “They basically see it as a cost of doing business…we need accountability, we need stronger laws.”
Members of the public may submit concerns related to workplace safety and injuries at Amazon facilities through the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York at www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/webform/sdny-amazon-warehouse-investigation .
