RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – Amazon warehouses can be dangerous places to work – in some cases more dangerous than comparable facilities, a new report cited by CNBC says. However, Amazon disputes the claims in that report and challenges some of its conclusions.

Amazon operates several warehouses in the Triangle and across North Carolina.

A review of complaints by Occupational Safety and Health Administration that cited six warehouses showed none in North Carolina, a review of CNBC stories about the complaint shows.

“In 2022, there were 6.6 serious injuries for every 100 Amazon workers, according to a report released Wednesday from the union coalition Strategic Organizing Center, which relies on data submitted by Amazon to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. That’s more than double the rate of all non-Amazon warehouses, which had 3.2 serious injuries for every 100 workers,” CNBC reported Wednesday.

However, Kelly Nantel, an Amazon spokesperson, said the internet giant stresses worker safety and health.

“The safety and health of our employees is, and always will be, our top priority, and any claim otherwise is inaccurate.  It’s unsurprising that a self-interested group like this would work to twist the facts to paint an inaccurate picture,” Nantel said in an email to WRAL TechWire.

“While we know we have more work to do, the truth is clearly outlined in our safety report and we encourage anyone to both tour our facilities and read our safety report.  That report shows that since 2019, the recordable injury rate across our network has dropped more than 23% and the lost time injury rate has dropped more than 53%. We’re proud the progress made by our team and we’ll continue working hard together to keep getting better every day,” Nantel added.

The report

“While Amazon has enjoyed meteoric growth over the past few years, the company has failed to make meaningful progress in terms of worker safety, according to a new report from the Strategic Organizing Center. Despite CEO Andy Jassy describing warehouse worker safety as the company’s ‘priority number one,’ injuries experienced by Amazon warehouse workers continue to be both more frequent and more severe than those affecting workers at other warehouse companies, an analysis of data provided by the company to the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) shows,” the report says.

“The SOC analysis found that Amazon’s operations continue to be dramatically more dangerous for workers than the rest of the warehouse industry. In 2022, Amazon’s injury rate was 70 percent higher than the rate at non-Amazon warehouses, and its serious injury rate–6.6 per 100 workers—was more than double the rate at non-Amazon warehouses (3.2 per 100).  Workers at Amazon facilities sustained nearly 39,000 injuries in 2022. And while Amazon employed 36 percent of all U.S. warehouse workers in 2022, the company was responsible for more than half (53 percent) of all serious injuries in the industry.”

Amazon’s response

In a detailed response to the report Amazon responded in detail:

  • On the claim that Amazon has higher rates of “serious injuries” than industry peers:

Despite its use by media, there’s no regulatory metric called “serious injury rate.” Instead, OSHA measures (1) recordable injury rates (RIR – any injury that occurs at work), (2) days away, restricted, or transferred rates (DART – anything that requires someone to either change roles, restrict their work, or take time off), and (3) Lost Time Incident Rates (LTIR – the most serious injuries that require someone to take time off).

Some have used DART as shorthand for “serious” but that’s misleading because DART captures any injury that could lead to an employee taking time away from work, spending time working in another role, or transferring to a different role while recovering. If someone uses DART to mean “serious”, they’d be counting injuries that are relatively minor—like a strain where someone still comes to work and does most tasks, but should take a break from lifting boxes over 15lbs—along with more serious injuries that require extended time off to recover.

We believe that the most useful metrics to help us understand how injuries occur and what we can do to mitigate or prevent them from happening again is to look at RIR and LTIR because they are the ones that are most severe and actually require time away. When you look at our LTIR over the years, you’ll see we’ve made significant progress and are below the warehousing industry average.

LTIR is a better measure of the frequency of severe and serious injuries. The safety industry agrees with this and any third-party nonprofit safety group would say so. To verify, we suggest you reach out to an impartial, nonprofit safety organization such as the American Society of Safety Professionals, The Campbell Institute at the National Safety Council, or the American Society of Safety Professionals.

  • On allegations that Amazon employees must hit “quotas:”

It’s a common misperception that Amazon has fixed quotas, but we do not. Like any business, we have performance expectations for our teams, but they’re based on multiple factors including how the team at a particular site is performing. It’s also a common misperception that our teams don’t get sufficient breaks. In addition to their regularly scheduled breaks, employees are free to take informal breaks throughout their shifts to use the restroom, get water, or talk to a manager or HR. If there’s ever a concern about a manager misusing productivity guidance or asking employees to prioritize productivity over safety, we immediately investigate and take appropriate action. Safety is our number one priority at Amazon.

  • On pace of work allegations:

Safety and achievable performance expectations aren’t mutually exclusive. We’re clear with managers that productivity or speed should never be pressed at the expense of safety or quality, and we investigate reports of site managers using performance guidelines inappropriately.
Importantly, OSHA conducted a nationwide investigation into workplace safety at Amazon and did not cite “pace of work” as an alleged causal factor for injuries.

Time Logged In policies are not a productivity expectation. Time Logged In assesses whether employees are actually working while they’re logged in. For example, if an employee is meeting with a manager or HR, taking a restroom break, or grabbing a drink of water, that time is not counted toward Time Logged In. However, if employees are doing something that you wouldn’t expect at work – like sleeping in the breakroom while logged in – they’re likely to receive training and feedback. That expectation is not unreasonable.