Amazon Defends Warehouse Safety Following Report on Injuries

The report comes amid a wave of complaints over working conditions at Amazon warehouses.

Amazon Defends Warehouse Safety Following Report on Injuries

Amazon said Reveal was misinformed regarding a safety metric of the Occupational Safety Administration

Highlights
  • Amazon said there is no industry standard on "serious incident rate"
  • Amazon has some 900,000 employees worldwide
  • Amazon committed some $1 billion to workplace safety in 2020
Advertisement

Amazon on Tuesday defended its warehouse safety record after a news investigation pointed to a higher-than-average injury rate in the company's massive logistics operations.

A report released by the Center for Investigative Reporting's Reveal project found Amazon fulfillment centers recorded 14,000 serious injuries in 2019 requiring days off or job restrictions.

The report, citing internal documents, concluded that the overall rate of 7.7 serious injuries per 100 employees was 33 percent higher than in 2016 and nearly double the industry standard.

The Reveal report, based on data from 2016 through 2019 from more than 150 US-based Amazon warehouses, suggested that Amazon's claims on workplace safety belied the statistics.

The report comes amid a wave of complaints over working conditions at Amazon warehouses, even as the company has touted its hefty investments in workplace safety, stepped up during the coronavirus pandemic.

Responding to the report, Amazon strongly denied misleading the public and claimed Reveal's interpretation of the data was wrong.

"We strongly refute the claims that we've misled anyone. At Amazon, we are known for obsessing over customers--but we also obsess about our employees and their safety," the company said in an email to AFP.

Amazon said Reveal was "misinformed" regarding a safety metric of the government's Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

The company said there is no industry standard on "serious incident rate," and that using that metric distorts Amazon's policy which "encourages someone with any type of injury, for example a small strain or sprain, to stay away from work until they're better."

Amazon, which has some 900,000 employees worldwide, in 2020 alone has committed some $1 billion to workplace safety to mitigate the impact of COVID-19.


Will Xbox Series S, PS5 Digital Edition fail in India? We discussed this on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below.

Affiliate links may be automatically generated - see our ethics statement for details.
Comments

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.

Apple Grants CEO Tim Cook First Major Stock Package Since 2011
Share on Facebook Gadgets360 Twitter Share Tweet Snapchat Share Reddit Comment google-newsGoogle News
 
 

Advertisement

Follow Us

Advertisement

© Copyright Red Pixels Ventures Limited 2024. All rights reserved.
Trending Products »
Latest Tech News »