While many consumers set reminders and count down the days until Amazon’s annual Prime Day sales event, the company has recently come under fire for its employee safety practices during the busy seasons.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who is in the midst of an in-depth investigation into Amazon’s warehouse safety, has reported that peak times at Amazon – holidays, Prime Days, etc. – lead to a serious increase in safety injuries.
Amazon strongly disputed the report, saying it doesn't tell the full story.
"We've cooperated throughout this investigation, including providing thousands of pages of information and documents,” Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel said in a statement.
“But unfortunately, this report, which was not shared with us before publishing, ignores our progress and paints a one-sided, false narrative, using only a fraction of the information we've provided. It draws sweeping and inaccurate conclusions based on unverified anecdotes, and it misrepresents documents that are several years old and contained factual errors and faulty analysis."
The report found that nearly half of all Amazon workers suffered injuries during Prime Day 2019.
“The incredibly dangerous working conditions at Amazon revealed in this investigation are a perfect example of the type of corporate greed that the American people are sick and tired of,” Sanders said.
“Despite making $36 billion in profits last year and providing its CEO with over $275 million in compensation over the past three years, Amazon continues to treat its workers as disposable and with complete contempt for their safety and well-being. That is unacceptable and that has got to change. Amazon must be held accountable for the horrendous working conditions at its warehouses and substantially reduce its injury rates.”
Moving faster, working harder
To get a better understanding of the working conditions in Amazon’s warehouses, the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee has interviewed over 100 current and former Amazon employees.
Of those interviewed, they all shared a similar story: peak seasons at Amazon forces workers to move faster, work longer shifts, and handle double the amount of orders as they usually do.
The HELP Committee’s report said that employees are encouraged to prioritize productivity over safety when things start to get busy during the holidays or Prime Day. On top of that, warehouses implement “mandatory extra time,” which means that employees have to take on extra shifts during these busy periods with fewer breaks.
Employees are getting injured
Because the goal is productivity and pushing out orders, workers are more likely to get injured.
The report found that Amazon’s rate of recordable injuries, which are what they have to report to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), was over 10 injuries per 100 workers. That figure is more than double the nationwide standard.
Moreover, the rate of injuries that Amazon wasn’t required to share with OSHA was just under 45 injuries per 100 workers, or nearly half of all workers.
Digging even deeper, HELP’s report found that higher-ups at Amazon are aware of this issue, and have done little to remedy the situation.
“Prime Day and the holiday season are characterized by extremely high volume and intense pressure to work long hours and ignore safety guidelines,” the report states. “These injury rates are especially egregious in light of the incredible revenue the company generates and the resources it has available to make its warehouses safe for workers.”