
Amazon pushes its US warehouse staff to meet orders at speeds that would trigger excessive charges of harm regardless of being conscious of the dangers, an investigation led by Senator Bernie Sanders has discovered.
The findings, following an 18-month probe of the agency, help claims that staff and labour campaigners have made in regards to the firm for years.
The report accused the agency of rejecting modifications that might have decreased staff’ tempo, however improved security due to issues about its backside line.
However Amazon mentioned the report was “improper on the information”, and featured “selective, outdated info that lacks context and is not grounded in actuality”.
“This investigation wasn’t a fact-finding mission, however moderately an try to gather info and twist it to help a false narrative,” the corporate mentioned.
Amazon, which employs roughly 800,000 individuals within the US, has confronted accusations about unsafe situations at its warehouses for years.
These issues ramped up through the Covid pandemic, when e-commerce exploded, resulting in protests by its staff around the globe.
Amid the controversy, founder Jeff Bezos mentioned the corporate wanted to do higher by its workers.
Senator Sanders, who is thought for his pro-worker stance, launched an investigation into Amazon’s practices in June 2023. Senate staffers carried out 135 interviews and reviewed greater than 1,000 paperwork.
Their evaluation of public information discovered that warehouses operated by Amazon recorded over 30% extra accidents than the warehousing trade common in 2023.
Amazon staff have been additionally almost twice as more likely to be injured than individuals working in warehouses operated by different corporations in every of the final seven years, in accordance with the report, which was signed off by Democratic members of the Senate’s Committee on Well being, Schooling, Labor and Pensions.
Amazon had internally examined connections between office velocity and harm charges, together with in a evaluate known as Undertaking Soteria, in accordance with the investigation.
However the report mentioned the corporate opted to not undertake the really helpful modifications, which included offering extra day off to staff, and halting disciplinary motion in opposition to individuals who didn’t meet working velocity necessities.
Investigators additionally accused Amazon of attempting to “manipulate” knowledge to mislead the general public about its security document.
Amazon mentioned it was truthful for the agency to focus security comparisons on bigger warehouses.
It accused the Senate investigation of ignoring inconvenient information, corresponding to a decline in its harm charges and a current court docket victory, which dismissed security complaints.
It mentioned one other staff requested to evaluate the suggestions of Amazon’s inside security research had discovered that the methodology was “unsound”.
“Nothing” is extra essential to the agency than worker security, Amazon mentioned.
“Sen. Sanders and his workers selected to depend on the debunked Soteria evaluation as a result of it suits the false narrative he wished to construct,” the corporate added.