Getty PhotosAmazon pushes its US warehouse staff to meet orders at speeds that might 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, assist claims that staff and labour campaigners have made in regards to the firm for years.
The report accused the agency of rejecting modifications that may have diminished staff’ tempo, however improved security due to issues about its backside line.
However Amazon said the report was “unsuitable on the info”, and featured “selective, outdated info that lacks context and is not grounded in actuality”.
“This investigation wasn’t a fact-finding mission, however slightly an try to gather info and twist it to assist 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 throughout the Covid pandemic, when e-commerce exploded, resulting in protests by its staff all over the world.
Amid the controversy, founder Jeff Bezos mentioned the corporate wanted to do higher by its staff.
Senator Sanders, who is understood for his pro-worker stance, launched an investigation into Amazon’s practices in June 2023. Senate staffers performed 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 practically twice as more likely to be injured than individuals working in warehouses operated by different corporations in every of the final seven years, in response to 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 assessment referred to as Challenge Soteria, in response to the investigation.
However the report mentioned the corporate opted to not undertake the really useful modifications, which included offering extra break day to staff, and halting disciplinary motion towards 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 report.
Amazon mentioned it was honest for the agency to focus security comparisons on bigger warehouses.
It accused the Senate investigation of ignoring inconvenient info, akin to a decline in its harm charges and a current court docket victory, which dismissed security complaints.
It mentioned one other group requested to assessment the suggestions of Amazon’s inner security examine had discovered that the methodology was “unsound”.
“Nothing” is extra essential to the agency than worker security, Amazon mentioned.
“Sen. Sanders and his employees selected to depend on the debunked Soteria evaluation as a result of it matches the false narrative he needed to construct,” the corporate added.