Amazon.com Inc. on Wednesday pushed back on a scathing Senate report that its Prime Day sales event has led to a surge in injuries for its warehouse workers, saying the information in the report was outdated and disregarded more recent data.
The Health, Education, Labor & Pensions committee report, released on the first day of the 2024 sales event, comes after the company has faced years of scrutiny and citations from regulators and labor advocacy groups over its higher-than-average injury rates.
A year-long study by the committee zeroed in on Amazon’s safety practices using internal company data from 2019 and 2020, which Amazon confirmed it provided. The report found that the peak sales times resulted in the “highest weekly injury rates” for warehouse workers. It was also based on interviews with more than 100 current and former Amazon employees.
According to the report, 45 out of every 100 warehouse workers at Amazon were injured during the 2019 Prime Day event. The number included minor injuries the company was not required to disclose to the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, such as bruises and superficial cuts, and other injuries it failed to report as required by law.
An Amazon spokeswoman said in an email, “this data is four or five years old and does not reflect the reality of Amazon safety today.”
The company has worked with OSHA in its investigations and has made changes to safety practices, she said.
“What’s concerning is that (the Senate committee) intentionally disregarded four years of continuous improvement with regard to Amazon’s safety metrics – despite having access to our safety data from 2019-2023.”
OSHA has cited Amazon numerous times in the past decade over alleged lapses in record-keeping protocols, ergonomic shortcomings, and fast-paced quotas that cause worker injuries, the outcomes of which have not been made public. Once cited, the company has 15 days to contest or enter into conference with OSHA.
The Amazon spokeswoman would not disclose results, writing that “(c)itations are accusations, not proof of wrongdoing, and employers have the ability to contest them – so, we do so when we disagree with the allegations or the recommendations aren’t feasible for our operations.”
OSHA did not return requests for comment on outcomes following Amazon citations.
