A Senate Health, Education, Labour, and Pensions (HELP) Committee investigation reveals serious safety concerns as Amazon Prime Day results in around 45 injuries for every 100 employees. According to an email from Maureen Lynch Vogel, Principal of Global Safety PR at Amazon, this report was from Chairman Sanders and not the HELP Committee in general.
TakeAway Points:
- According to a Senate report, Amazon Prime Day results in a high number of injuries—nearly 45 for every 100 employees in 2019.
- However, Amazon rejects the results, pointing to a 28% decrease in serious injuries and $750 million spent on safety measures since 2019.
- As OSHA and the DOJ look into Amazon’s working conditions and injury reporting procedures, regulatory oversight is growing.
Senate Investigation Findings
The Committee released preliminary results from a yearlong investigation into Amazon’s warehouse working conditions, coinciding with the company’s annual Prime Day sales event. The investigation found that Amazon Prime Day, a 48-hour discount event, is a “major cause” of worker injuries.
According to internal data provided by Amazon, the total injury rate during Prime Day 2019 was “just under” 45 injuries per 100 workers, which equates to nearly half of the company’s warehouse workforce. The report highlighted that injuries peaked during Prime Day and the holiday shopping season, with common injuries including muscle sprains, rotator cuff injuries, and herniated disks.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, who chairs the HELP committee, stated, “Amazon continues to treat its workers as disposable and with complete contempt for their safety and wellbeing. That is unacceptable and that has got to change.” The report also noted that Amazon’s warehouses were understaffed during these peak periods, which increased the risk to workers. An internal Amazon document titled “2021 Prime Day Lessons Learned” revealed that the company met only 71.2% of its hiring target between May and June 2021, ending the week of that year’s Prime Day event.
Amazon’s Reaction
Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel disputed the Senate report, stating that it “draws sweeping and inaccurate conclusions based on unverified anecdotes, and it misrepresents documents that are several years old and contained factual errors and faulty analysis.”
Nantel emphasized that since 2019, Amazon has made significant improvements in workplace safety. The company has reduced its incident rate for injuries requiring more than basic first aid by 28% in the U.S. and the lost time incident rate, which includes more significant injuries requiring an employee to miss at least one day of work, by 75%.
Nantel also addressed the issue of understaffing, stating, “We carefully plan and staff up for major events, ensure that we have excess capacity across our network, and design our network so that orders are automatically routed to sites that can handle unexpected spikes in volume.” She added that Amazon has invested more than $750 million in safety initiatives this year and has begun to automate some tasks and roll out more robotic systems in warehouse facilities to improve safety.
Regulatory Scrutiny
Amazon has faced increased scrutiny over its workplace injury record and treatment of warehouse and delivery workers. The company has been cited by federal regulators for safety violations, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the U.S. Attorney’s Office are investigating conditions at several warehouses. The U.S. Department of Justice is also examining whether Amazon underreports injuries. In March, Amazon announced that its injury rates had improved and outlined plans to invest in safety initiatives.
The Senate report found that warehouse workers sustained “recordable” injuries at more than twice the warehouse industry average during the week of Prime Day in 2019. Recordable injuries are those that require medical attention beyond basic first aid and must be reported to the federal government. The report suggested that these rates might be underestimated, noting that Amazon has faced numerous federal and state recordkeeping violations, such as “failing to record injuries and illnesses” and “misclassifying injuries and illnesses.”
