Amazon Manipulated Injury Data to Make Warehouses Appear Safer, Senate Investigation: NPR

NPR, Dec.16, 2024.

A Senate committee investigation accused the nation's largest online retailer Amazon of putting workers at risk of injury in the name of speed — while manipulating workplace injury data to portray its warehouses as safer than they truly are. The findings were released late Sunday by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension (HELP) Committee, led by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.

The report stems from an 18-month investigation that reviewed seven years of Amazon workplace injury data and interviewed over 130 Amazon workers. It found that despite Amazon's claims of safe working conditions, company data showed that its warehouses have "significantly higher" injury rates than both the industry average and non-Amazon warehouses.

More specifically, over the past seven years, Amazon workers were nearly twice as likely to be injured compared to workers at other warehouses in the sector. The report also found in 2023, Amazon warehouses recorded more than 30% more injuries than the industry average. It concluded that Amazon workers were put in harm's way by being forced to work at "an extremely fast and often dangerous pace."

Although the company has safety protocols, the report said "the company's required rates make those procedures nearly impossible to follow."...

https://www.npr.org/2024/12/16/nx-s1-5230240/amazon-injury-warehouse-senate-investigation