Amazon warehouses are more dangerous to work in than competitors'

Amazon recorded about 80 per cent more injuries at its warehouses than competitors last year

Employees at Amazon warehouses in the USA suffer injuries at a higher rate than those doing similar jobs at competitors' locations, a study has found.

Amazon warehouse workers recorded 5.9 serious injuries per 100 people last year: about 80 per cent higher than the rest of the industry, according to the Strategic Organizing Center (SOC).

SOC's analysis is based on Amazon's workplace safety data, reported to the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration from 2017 to 2020.

'The company's obsession with speed has come at a huge cost for Amazon's workforce,' the SOC says in its report.

'Workers at Amazon warehouses are not only injured more frequently than in non-Amazon warehouses, they are also injured more severely,' it noted.

The report notes that Amazon employees were injured at work in 2020 took longer to recover than workers in other warehouses. Injured Amazon workers were absent for an average of 46.3 days, about a week longer than the average recovery time across the rest of the industry.

Moreover, the overall injury rate at Amazon (6.5 injuries per 100 employees) was more than double compared to Walmart's (3 per 100 employees).

The Washington Post reached similar conclusions after conducting an independent analysis of the same data.

In a statement to the BBC, Amazon said that it spent over $1bn (£705.9m) in 2020 to increase workplace safety.

"While any incident is one too many, we are continuously learning and seeing improvements through ergonomics programs, guided exercises at employees' workstations, mechanical assistance equipment, workstation setup and design, and forklift telematics and guardrails - to name a few," an Amazon spokesperson told the news outlet.

Not the first offence

SOC's findings come more than six months after a similar study by the Center for Investigative Reporting, which found that the use of robots in Amazon's warehouses and distribution centres was causing more injuries to employees than facilities relying solely on human workers.

The analysis, based on internal records for about 150 Amazon warehouses over four years, found there were about 14,000 serious injuries at Amazon facilities in 2019, an increase of 33 per cent from 2015. The overall injury rate in 2019 was almost double the industry standard.

For a few warehouses, the number of serious injuries reported was five times the industry average.

The CIR analysis found that the 'Prime Day' sales period was the most dangerous week for injuries at Amazon fulfilment centres. About 400 serious injuries were recorded across the USA in that period in 2019. Cyber Monday is also among the most dangerous weeks for workers.

On Tuesday, Amazon adjusted a controversial 'Time Off Task' metric, which has drawn the ire of warehouse workers, who say it imposes an unsafe burden on them.

Amazon currently uses algorithms to monitor workers' productivity, and they must share the reasons for 'time off task' (away from their workstations). If a certain threshold is reached, the worker is issued warnings and can even be terminated.

"Starting today, wer'e now averaging Time off Task over a longer period," Dave Clark, the chief of Amazon's global retail and logistics business, said in a blog post on Tuesday.

Clark added that the firm would no longer test for marijuana as part of its 'drug screening' or disqualify applicants for it, with the exception of positions regulated by the Department of Transportation.

Clark added that the company would support proposed federal laws that would legalise marijuana.