Amazon hit with fine from OSHA for unsafe working conditions at its warehouses

The Labor Division’s Occupational Security and Well being Administration introduced immediately that it had discovered numerous security hazards at three warehouses belonging to Amazon.com Inc.

Investigators for the OSHA mentioned they inspected three websites at Deltona, Florida; Waukegan, Illinois; and New Windsor, New York. In any respect three, there have been what it known as “ergonomic hazards” in breach of the U.S. Occupational Security and Well being Act.

Three different places are presently underneath investigation. The division additionally mentioned Amazon had did not report accidents at its warehouses within the current previous.

OSHA mentioned in a press release that staff on the warehouses had been prone to growing “decrease again accidents and different musculoskeletal problems” due to the excessive frequency of labor that requires them to maneuver packages round. For lengthy hours, mentioned the investigators, staff need to elevate heavy packages in typically awkward positions. The corporate was hit with a tremendous of $60,269, which isn’t a lot when its income was reported as $127.1 billion within the last earnings report of 2022.

“Every of those inspections discovered work processes that had been designed for pace however not security, they usually resulted in severe employee accidents,” mentioned Douglas Parker, the assistant secretary of labor for occupational security and well being. “Whereas Amazon has developed spectacular methods to ensure its prospects’ orders are shipped effectively and shortly, the corporate has failed to indicate the identical stage of dedication to defending the security and well-being of its staff.”

The corporate’s retail enterprise has slowed down of late, in keeping with a lot of the tech trade’s current woes. There was an unsurprising boon for Amazon throughout the COVID lockdowns, however these days are over. Simply immediately, Amazon introduced that it was starting its layoffs of 18,000 people, lots of whom are working in bodily retail divisions.

Accidents at Amazon warehouses and employees being labored too laborious is a well-recognized story, with the corporate criticized for this for a few years now. It is a world concern, not simply within the U.S. When Amazon was making hay throughout the pandemic, it made headlines regularly referring to worker conditions in quite a lot of international locations.

Amazon has all the time mentioned it takes employee security very critically. In a press release immediately, that’s precisely what spokesperson Kelly Nantel mentioned, including that Amazon “doesn’t agree” with OSHA’s newest allegations. “We’ve cooperated totally, and the federal government’s allegations don’t replicate the truth of security at our websites,” Nantel mentioned. “We sit up for sharing extra throughout our enchantment concerning the quite a few security improvements, course of enhancements, and investments we’re making to additional cut back accidents.”

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