THE Strategic Organising Centre (SOC) has recently released a report called: The Injury Machine: How Amazon’s Production System Hurts Workers.
The SOC is a coalition of four labour unions (Service Employees International Union, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Communications Workers of America, and United Farmworkers of America) that together represent more than four million workers.
The report highlights the systemic problems within Amazon’s production system.
The SOC’s analysis is based on data provided by Amazon and other employers to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) from 2017 to 2021.
Amazon reported injury and illness information for 715 facilities in 2020 and 906 in 2021, covering an average annual workforce that grew from 201,005 workers in 2017 to 566,736 in 2021.
Since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, Amazon’s business has seen significant growth as consumers have increased their online shopping.
The company’s profits have also continued to rise, reaching $33.4 billion in 2021. However, this growth has come at a high cost for Amazon’s workers.
Amazon’s high-pressure operations have resulted in a rising number of worker injuries, which have continued to increase.
According to data analysed by the SOC, Amazon’s overall injury rate increased by 20% from 2020 to 2021.
Amazon’s operations are also significantly more dangerous for workers compared to the rest of the warehouse industry, with a serious injury rate of 6.8 per 100 workers in 2021, more than double the rate at non-Amazon warehouses.
In 2021, Amazon workers sustained nearly 40,000 injuries, with the company responsible for 49% of all injuries in the industry despite employing only 33% of all US warehouse workers.
Amazon’s high injury rates have been a longstanding issue.
The Strategic Organising Centre’s June 2021 report, Primed for Pain, found that Amazon’s warehouses consistently had higher overall injury rates than its competitors from 2017-2020.
The company’s focus on speed and its use of monitoring systems to increase pressure on workers have contributed to these high injury rates.
Amazon’s high-pressure operations have even been referred to as ‘Bezosism’, a term coined by The Wall Street Journal to describe the way Amazon uses technology to extract maximum performance from its workers.
Amazon’s focus on speed and its use of monitoring and discipline systems to enforce work rates have been the focus of worker advocacy efforts, including unionisation drives and legislation regulating the use of production quotas in warehouses.
Health and safety inspectors in Washington, where Amazon is head-quartered, have found that the company’s high-pressure production model is harmful to workers, citing Amazon facilities near Seattle for violating federal health and safety laws and linking the company’s high pace of work and monitoring and discipline systems to the high rates of injuries at these facilities.
Legislators in other states, including California, Minnesota, and Washington, have also introduced bills addressing Amazon’s unsafe work speed.
In response to increased scrutiny of its safety record, Amazon has launched a public relations campaign to try to convince the public that it is taking safety seriously. The company claims to have invested millions of dollars in initiatives to promote safety and has stated that it aims to reduce injury rates by 50% by 2025.
However, an analysis of Amazon’s injury data for 2021 by the SOC found that the company has not only failed to make any progress in improving its injury rates, but has performed worse than in the previous year, raising doubts about the company’s commitment to preventing worker injuries.
From 2017 to 2021, Amazon’s injury rates only declined in 2020, the same year that the company temporarily eased its work speed pressures in response to the Covid-19 pandemic by suspending disciplinary action against workers for under-performing on productivity metrics.
However, in October 2020, ahead of Prime Day, Amazon reinstated its work rate, claiming to have ‘revised’ its algorithms to accommodate Covid-related safety measures.
Workers reported that the productivity pressures returned, and in June 2021, Amazon claimed to be changing the way it monitored workers’ ‘Time off Task’, but experts called the change ‘tiny’ and insufficient.
As a result, injury rates increased in 2021 along with the reinstatement of Amazon’s high production pressures on workers.
In 2021, there were 38,334 total recordable injuries (those requiring medical treatment beyond first aid or requiring time off work) at Amazon facilities, with the vast majority (89%) classified as either light duty or lost time injuries (injuries that prevent workers from performing their regular job functions or cause them to miss work entirely).
In total, workers experienced almost 40,000 injuries at Amazon’s facilities in 2021. Authorities have attempted to force Amazon to improve worker safety, but the company has appealed findings and refused to slow the pace of work that is contributing to high injury rates.
Amazon has claimed that it is committed to improving safety at its warehouses, and has even set a goal of halving its injury rates within five years.
However, despite promising to improve safety at its warehouses and investing $300 million on safety initiatives in 2021, Amazon’s injury rates have continued to rise.
It has continued to insist that its warehouses are becoming safer and has released a public relations report titled ‘Delivered with Care’, which gives the misleading impression that safety at the company’s warehouses is improving.
There is evidence to suggest that Amazon’s public disclosures about safety conditions in its warehouses are designed to present a positive image rather than accurately reflect the reality of workers’ injuries.
In 2021 and 2022, the Washington State Occupational Safety and Health Administration (WA OSHA) issued four safety citations for Amazon’s dangerous workplaces, including a citation for 10 separate violations classified as ‘wilful’, which is the most serious finding that OSHA can issue.
These citations were based on Amazon’s ‘very high pace of work’ and its ‘monitoring and discipline systems’, which were found to be causing a high rate of serious injuries.
A warehouse in DuPont had a recordable injury every 2.3 days from 2016-2020.
After WA OSHA issued its first citation in May 2021 at DuPont, Amazon appealed the citation instead of implementing the mandated remedies.
WA OSHA also found Amazon’s wilful violations at a warehouse in Kent in March 2022, citing the company’s ‘very high pace of work’ as causing injuries and finding 10 different areas in which Amazon was operating unsafely.
Amazon is appealing both the DuPont and Kent citations, but while the appeals are pending, the company is legally required to change its practices to remedy the violations, including by reducing the pace of work and ceasing the use of abusive monitoring and discipline systems.
For the fifth year in a row, the injury rate at Amazon’s warehouses with robotic technology has been higher than at its non-robotic warehouses.
In 2021, the injury rate at the sortable facilities with robotics was 7.3 per 100 workers, which is 28% higher than the rate at non-robotic sortable facilities (5.7 per 100).
The introduction of robots has also increased the productivity target for workers, resulting in more pressure on employees to move faster and increasing the risk of injury.
Repetitive motions required by the robotic system can also increase the risk of injury if workstations are not properly designed or if the movements require excessive twisting, bending, and awkward postures.
THE Strategic Organising Centre (SOC) has recently released a report called: The Injury Machine: How Amazon’s Production System Hurts Workers.
The SOC is a coalition of four labour unions (Service Employees International Union, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Communications Workers of America, and United Farmworkers of America) that together represent more than four million workers.
The report highlights the systemic problems within Amazon’s production system.
The SOC’s analysis is based on data provided by Amazon and other employers to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) from 2017 to 2021.
Amazon reported injury and illness information for 715 facilities in 2020 and 906 in 2021, covering an average annual workforce that grew from 201,005 workers in 2017 to 566,736 in 2021.
Since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, Amazon’s business has seen significant growth as consumers have increased their online shopping.
The company’s profits have also continued to rise, reaching $33.4 billion in 2021. However, this growth has come at a high cost for Amazon’s workers.
Amazon’s high-pressure operations have resulted in a rising number of worker injuries, which have continued to increase.
According to data analysed by the SOC, Amazon’s overall injury rate increased by 20% from 2020 to 2021.
Amazon’s operations are also significantly more dangerous for workers compared to the rest of the warehouse industry, with a serious injury rate of 6.8 per 100 workers in 2021, more than double the rate at non-Amazon warehouses.
In 2021, Amazon workers sustained nearly 40,000 injuries, with the company responsible for 49% of all injuries in the industry despite employing only 33% of all US warehouse workers.
Amazon’s high injury rates have been a longstanding issue.
The Strategic Organising Centre’s June 2021 report, Primed for Pain, found that Amazon’s warehouses consistently had higher overall injury rates than its competitors from 2017-2020.
The company’s focus on speed and its use of monitoring systems to increase pressure on workers have contributed to these high injury rates.
Amazon’s high-pressure operations have even been referred to as ‘Bezosism’, a term coined by The Wall Street Journal to describe the way Amazon uses technology to extract maximum performance from its workers.
Amazon’s focus on speed and its use of monitoring and discipline systems to enforce work rates have been the focus of worker advocacy efforts, including unionisation drives and legislation regulating the use of production quotas in warehouses.
Health and safety inspectors in Washington, where Amazon is head-quartered, have found that the company’s high-pressure production model is harmful to workers, citing Amazon facilities near Seattle for violating federal health and safety laws and linking the company’s high pace of work and monitoring and discipline systems to the high rates of injuries at these facilities.
Legislators in other states, including California, Minnesota, and Washington, have also introduced bills addressing Amazon’s unsafe work speed.
In response to increased scrutiny of its safety record, Amazon has launched a public relations campaign to try to convince the public that it is taking safety seriously. The company claims to have invested millions of dollars in initiatives to promote safety and has stated that it aims to reduce injury rates by 50% by 2025.
However, an analysis of Amazon’s injury data for 2021 by the SOC found that the company has not only failed to make any progress in improving its injury rates, but has performed worse than in the previous year, raising doubts about the company’s commitment to preventing worker injuries.
From 2017 to 2021, Amazon’s injury rates only declined in 2020, the same year that the company temporarily eased its work speed pressures in response to the Covid-19 pandemic by suspending disciplinary action against workers for under-performing on productivity metrics.
However, in October 2020, ahead of Prime Day, Amazon reinstated its work rate, claiming to have ‘revised’ its algorithms to accommodate Covid-related safety measures.
Workers reported that the productivity pressures returned, and in June 2021, Amazon claimed to be changing the way it monitored workers’ ‘Time off Task’, but experts called the change ‘tiny’ and insufficient.
As a result, injury rates increased in 2021 along with the reinstatement of Amazon’s high production pressures on workers.
In 2021, there were 38,334 total recordable injuries (those requiring medical treatment beyond first aid or requiring time off work) at Amazon facilities, with the vast majority (89%) classified as either light duty or lost time injuries (injuries that prevent workers from performing their regular job functions or cause them to miss work entirely).
In total, workers experienced almost 40,000 injuries at Amazon’s facilities in 2021. Authorities have attempted to force Amazon to improve worker safety, but the company has appealed findings and refused to slow the pace of work that is contributing to high injury rates.
Amazon has claimed that it is committed to improving safety at its warehouses, and has even set a goal of halving its injury rates within five years.
However, despite promising to improve safety at its warehouses and investing $300 million on safety initiatives in 2021, Amazon’s injury rates have continued to rise.
It has continued to insist that its warehouses are becoming safer and has released a public relations report titled ‘Delivered with Care’, which gives the misleading impression that safety at the company’s warehouses is improving.
There is evidence to suggest that Amazon’s public disclosures about safety conditions in its warehouses are designed to present a positive image rather than accurately reflect the reality of workers’ injuries.
In 2021 and 2022, the Washington State Occupational Safety and Health Administration (WA OSHA) issued four safety citations for Amazon’s dangerous workplaces, including a citation for 10 separate violations classified as ‘wilful’, which is the most serious finding that OSHA can issue.
These citations were based on Amazon’s ‘very high pace of work’ and its ‘monitoring and discipline systems’, which were found to be causing a high rate of serious injuries.
A warehouse in DuPont had a recordable injury every 2.3 days from 2016-2020.
After WA OSHA issued its first citation in May 2021 at DuPont, Amazon appealed the citation instead of implementing the mandated remedies.
WA OSHA also found Amazon’s wilful violations at a warehouse in Kent in March 2022, citing the company’s ‘very high pace of work’ as causing injuries and finding 10 different areas in which Amazon was operating unsafely.
Amazon is appealing both the DuPont and Kent citations, but while the appeals are pending, the company is legally required to change its practices to remedy the violations, including by reducing the pace of work and ceasing the use of abusive monitoring and discipline systems.
For the fifth year in a row, the injury rate at Amazon’s warehouses with robotic technology has been higher than at its non-robotic warehouses.
In 2021, the injury rate at the sortable facilities with robotics was 7.3 per 100 workers, which is 28% higher than the rate at non-robotic sortable facilities (5.7 per 100).
The introduction of robots has also increased the productivity target for workers, resulting in more pressure on employees to move faster and increasing the risk of injury.
Repetitive motions required by the robotic system can also increase the risk of injury if workstations are not properly designed or if the movements require excessive twisting, bending, and awkward postures.