An investigative report reveals that Amazon ignored internal warnings about high injury rates among warehouse workers, and journalists refute Amazon's rebuttal
Amazon warehouses have reported
The “Injury-Productivity Trade-off”:How Amazon's Obsession with Speed Creates Uniquely Dangerous Warehouses
(PDF file) https://www.help.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/amazon_investigation.pdf
Amazon's Jeff Bezos has more money than could be spent in a million lifetimes.
pic.twitter.com/mmkdT4I7yJ — Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) December 14, 2024
Why then does his company force workers to meet impossible quotas and treat them as disposable when they are injured?
To Amazon, long-term pain and disability is just the cost of doing business.
Amazon Disregarded Internal Warnings on Injuries, Senate Investigation Claims - The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/16/business/economy/amazon-warehouse-injuries.html
Amazon facing strike threats as Senate report details hidden widespread injuries
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/12/bernie-sanders-probe-finds-amazon-hid-worker-injuries-to-prioritize-profits/
Amazon's warehouse workers have long been known to work in harsh conditions, with one UK warehouse reporting more than 1,400 ambulance calls over a five-year period, compared with fewer than 10 per year for competitors.
Amazon's UK warehouse has had over 1,400 ambulance calls in five years - GIGAZINE
According to an investigation by Senator Sanders and others, Amazon was aware that the injury rate in its warehouses was twice the average for other industries, and that its safety and health officials had recommended reviewing the quotas, but the proposal was rejected by upper management, who were concerned that it would affect the company's performance.
'The extremely unsafe working conditions at Amazon's warehouses, as revealed in this 160-page report, are unacceptable. Amazon's management has repeatedly put profits above the health and safety of its employees and has ignored recommendations to reduce injuries,' Sanders said in a statement.
Amazon criticized the Sanders report, saying it was 'based on factual errors and outdated information.' It published a rebuttal in which it said, 'Employee safety has always been Amazon's top priority.'
Amazon response to Bernie Sanders' misleading workplace safety report
https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/policy-news-views/amazon-response-to-senator-bernie-sanders-report-on-workplace-safety
In response to Amazon's rebuttal, Jane Chung, a reporter who fights for workers, has issued a rebuttal.
The first point that Chung pointed out was that Amazon explained that it had voluntarily and in good faith cooperated with the Senate investigation. In reality, according to Chung, Amazon evaded the question, claiming that 'creating a lot of documents would be a waste of time,' and instead sent irrelevant training materials to the investigation committee.
The report also exposes the opacity of Amazon's claim that 'injuries have decreased because Amazon encouraged workers to speed up,' stating that the company's explanation for this is that 'the injury rate has decreased based on an outlier year in which the injury rate was more than twice the average for other companies.'
According to Chen, Amazon claims that its internal project, Project Elderwand, showed that forcing employees to take breaks does not reduce injuries. However, Project Elderwand showed that limiting the number of repetitive tasks can prevent back pain. However, upper management did not accept the proposal to limit the number of tasks.
Chen pointed out 13 lies by Amazon, and concluded that his report made three facts clear: 'Amazon has lied about employee injuries for years; Amazon identified the cause of injuries but did not follow recommendations to address them; Amazon's warehouses are twice as dangerous as those of its competitors.'
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in Note, Posted by logc_nt