Seattle-Amazon, the second largest private employer in the United States, also leads in another category: the frequency of injuries to its warehouse workers.
New work injury data from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration show that these jobs may be more dangerous than similar warehouses. Since 2017, compared with other retail warehouse operators, Amazon has reported a higher incidence of serious injuries that caused employees to be absent or transferred to light tasks.
According to OSHA data, in 2020, for every 200,000 hours of work (equivalent to 100 employees working full-time for a year) in Amazon warehouses in the United States, there will be 5.9 serious accidents. This is almost twice that of non-Amazon warehouses. In contrast, Wal-Mart is the largest private employer in the United States and one of Amazon’s competitors. In 2020, its factories reported 2.5 severe cases for every 100 workers.
Despite a decline in 2020, serious injuries to Amazon warehouses are more common than competing companies
Despite a decline in 2020, serious injuries to Amazon warehouses are more common than competing companies
Note: Serious accidents include injury accidents that cause workers to be absent from work or change jobs
The Post analyzed facility-level injury records from OSHA to arrive at these numbers. The Washington Post found that 5,411 warehousing and storage facilities (638 of which are owned by Amazon and its subsidiaries) sent reports to OSHA in 2020.
The data does not specify the cause of the accident, but some former OSHA officials, union representatives and Amazon employees attribute the blame to productivity pressures. The e-commerce giant pushes many of its warehouse employees—especially those in fulfillment centers, sorting centers, and distribution stations—to store, pick, and pack items at an hourly rate. Critics say these indicators are too onerous and can lead to injuries.
“They have unrealistic expectations,” said Bobby Gosvener, who worked at the Amazon warehouse in Tulsa at the end of last year until he was injured.
“We will not set unreasonable performance targets,” Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, who owns The Washington Post, wrote in an April letter to shareholders in which he said Come to the workplace safety issues. “We set achievable performance goals, which take into account tenure and actual employee performance data.”
Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nanter wrote in an email statement that, like many other companies, Amazon uses performance indicators to measure productivity and provides specialized guidance to work with employees who fail to meet expectations.
Nanter wrote that in 2020, Amazon spent more than $1 billion on security measures, such as expanding programs that provide stretching, meditation, and nutritional guidance, and purchasing personal protective equipment to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus. Nantel added that the company also employs more than 6,200 employees for its workplace health and safety team.
“Although any accidents are too many, we continue to learn and see through ergonomic plans, guided exercises at employee workstations, mechanical auxiliary equipment, workstation setup and design, and forklift telematics and guardrails-to name a few. Improve,” she wrote. .
Amazon refused to allow any executives to be interviewed on its work injury data. The company also declined to comment on specific data showing that its factory injury rate is higher than that of its competitors. Amazon did not question the authenticity of the OSHA data, nor did it question the Post’s method of calculating the injury rate.
During the pandemic, Amazon’s rate of serious injuries actually declined in 2020, when the company cancelled performance tracking for part of the year, giving workers more time to wash their hands and sanitize work areas— —And employs more than 400,000 time workers in the North American logistics business. Amazon declined to explain the reason for the drop in injury rates.
Former OSHA chief of staff and senior policy adviser Debbie Berkowitz (Debbie Berkowitz) said she believes the company’s goals are too aggressive.
“The pace of work and the number of twists and turns is huge,” said Berkowitz, who now works in the National Employment Law Project of the Workers Advocate Organization. “The pressure to work fast is always there.”
The Center for Strategic Organization, a union of unions that includes the International Brotherhood of Truck Drivers and the International Service Employees Union, released a report on Tuesday that came to conclusions similar to the Washington Post analysis. SOC initially obtained Amazon’s injury data from OSHA and provided its analysis exclusively to The Post. The Post then conducted its own independent analysis. SOC also investigated the injury rate of Amazon’s delivery service partners and conducted an investigation into the workplace safety of Amazon employees.
SOC’s director of health and safety, Eric Frumin, said of Amazon’s injury rate: “This is a shocking level of incompetence.”
Amazon’s employment surge — nearly 1.3 million employees worldwide, most of whom work in the company’s fulfillment centers, transportation hubs, and grocery stores — is a direct result of its drive to change the way consumers shop. According to data from eMarketer, the company now accounts for about 40% of online retail in the U.S. According to data from the U.S. Department of Commerce, e-commerce has soared to 13% of total U.S. retail sales, which is further expanded by the pandemic.
Amazon’s rapid hiring in the past few years has made it the second largest private employer in the United States after Wal-Mart. Amazon announced on May 13 that it plans to add 75,000 employees to its fulfillment and transportation business, offering a signing bonus of $1,000 in certain locations, and paying an average of $17 per hour.
For a long time, compensation and benefits have been Amazon’s selling points. In 2018, after facing political pressure from difficult working conditions, the company increased its starting salary to $15 an hour nationwide. The company also provides employees with health insurance for the first day and retirement benefits.
But the Washington Post’s analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data and job postings found that in many markets, including those with the highest injury rates in warehouses, average wages for comparable jobs are higher.
For example, according to a list on Indeed.com, in Tulsa, Amazon’s most recent job openings include a warehouse job, some of which start at $18.70 an hour. Although this is higher than the $15 per hour warehouse work in the nearby Scotts Miracle-Gro warehouse, it is lower than the starting salary of $19.45 per hour provided by Pepsi-Cola in the Tulsa warehouse.
Still, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average warehouse in Tulsa County pays about $11 an hour—lower than Amazon.
At the same time, according to the analysis of OSHA data by The Washington Post, the work injury rate at Amazon’s Tulsa warehouse is much higher than the national average for non-Amazon facilities, with 13.5 serious work-related accidents per 100 workers last year.
Gosvener, a Tulsa Amazon warehouse worker, did not know the injury rate at these facilities when he worked there last year. The price starts at $15 per hour in order to use his educational benefits to become a pilot or paralegal.
The week before Christmas, the warehouse was busier than ever. The 52-year-old Gosvener returned from lunch break and found that several boxes full of products that he was responsible for moving on the conveyor belt fell to the ground because of the conveyor belt failure. He tried to deal with the mess. Sorting—this was a decision he made himself, even though his supervisor knew it—he raced to drag 25-pound bins back to the conveyor line, even if more bins fell.
At the end of the day, Gosvener could not move his arm. The next day, Amazon transferred him to a light position and made him responsible for screening employees for the coronavirus. Two weeks later, the doctor diagnosed Gosvener with herniated disc.
In 2020, Gosvener’s serious injury was one of more than 24,400 cases reported by 638 Amazon warehouses. According to OSHA data, more than 10,800 injuries caused employees to lose their jobs during recovery, while approximately 13,600 were injured.
Walmart submitted injury reports from more than 242 factories to OSHA in 2020, but did not respond to requests for comment on its low injury rate.
Amazon did not dispute Gosvener’s claims and admitted that he had been granted leave. However, the company pointed out that its investment is a measure of its importance to safety issues.
Gosvener’s warehouse has published a brochure for employees-”A Guide to Health and Wellness for Amazons”, which describes the physical challenges at work. Gosvener shared this booklet with The Washington Post, describing the company’s warehouse workers as “industrial athletes.” It also pointed out that some warehouse employees walk up to 13 miles a day, while others may lift up to 20,000 pounds at the end of their shifts. Amazon declined to comment on this brochure.
In Bezos’ April shareholder letter, he acknowledged that the company needs to “do better for our employees.” Although Bezos disputed the claim of poor working conditions in the warehouse, he wrote that the company plans to invest more than $300 million in safety projects this year. To this end, Amazon listed a new workplace safety plan when it announced its first quarter earnings two weeks later.
The company said in May that it is expanding a health and safety program in which employees will receive guidance on “physical mechanics, active health and safety”, with the goal of halving the recordable accident rate by 2025. The company said it is also working with experts on related musculoskeletal diseases to develop a plan to prevent injuries.
This is the kind of injury that Goswina suffered. He said that if he received more training, he would get better service instead of the short films he watched at the kiosks, which usually focused on correct weight lifting and moving procedures.
Amazon’s Nantel countered that the company had not received any complaints from Gosvener about training, adding that records show that he completed more than 56 training courses during his time at Amazon.
The serious accidents per 100 full-time employees (200,000 hours of work per year) in Amazon warehouses are compared with the average incidence of other warehouses reported to OSHA each year.
Note: Serious accidents include injury accidents that cause workers to be absent from work or change jobs
Amazon’s network has tripled since 2017, and most of its warehouses have reported higher-than-normal injury rates
The serious accidents per 100 full-time employees (200,000 hours of work per year) in Amazon warehouses are compared with the average incidence of other warehouses reported to OSHA each year.
The serious accidents per 100 full-time employees (200,000 hours of work per year) in Amazon warehouses are compared with the average incidence of other warehouses reported to OSHA each year.
Amazon’s network has tripled since 2017, and most of its warehouses have reported higher-than-normal injury rates
The serious accidents per 100 full-time employees (200,000 hours of work per year) in Amazon warehouses are compared with the average incidence of other warehouses reported to OSHA each year.
Amazon and other large employers must electronically submit various injury data to OSHA each year, called a 300A form. Among other items, these data track the number of hours lost due to injuries and the time workers spend on “light work”—tasks that are not as hard as their normal work.
Until last summer, the agency only released high-level statistics on work-related injuries, claiming that the more detailed data is confidential business information. However, the investigation report of the non-profit watchdog organization and the “reveal” lawsuit filed by the Public Citizen Center led to a federal court ordering OSHA to release information.
Safiyo Mohamed was another injured worker. Her injury occurred in 2018. She found a job in a warehouse in Shakopi, Minnesota-this was her first job in the United States after immigrating from Somalia. She heard about the vacancy shortly after she arrived and accepted the job when she received her admission notice.
“I’m always looking for a better life,” said the 26-year-old Muhammad. Muhammad said she didn’t know the dangers of working in Amazon warehouses, and if she knew, she would not work there.
During the holiday season in December of that year, Mohamed scrambled to remove the tote bag containing the goods from the conveyor belt before the next shipment arrived.
Muhammad went to Amazon’s internal health clinic on the day of the injury, where they gave her an ice pack. Mohamed said that her manager gave her a 15-minute break before returning her to her original job.