The Occupational Security and Well being Administration has issued new citations to Amazon for failing to maintain staff secure at extra Amazon warehouses, the US Division of Labor announced on Wednesday.
The OHSA complaints allege that requiring workers to raise heavy objects at a excessive frequency throughout lengthy shifts has created unsafe working circumstances, amongst different claims. In a assessment of federally required on-site damage logs, OSHA discovered that Amazon warehouse staff skilled excessive charges of musculoskeletal problems.
OSHA has already been investigating Amazon after a number of staff died last summer at warehouses in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The brand new OSHA claims towards Amazon cite hazardous working circumstances in additional warehouses in Colorado, Idaho and New York, saying that Amazon exposes its staff to ergonomic hazards comparable to a “excessive danger of low again accidents and different musculoskeletal problems.” The most recent OSHA citations towards Amazon might value the corporate round $47,000.
“Amazon’s working strategies are creating hazardous work circumstances and processes, resulting in critical employee accidents,” Assistant Secretary for Occupational Security and Well being Doug Parker, stated in an announcement. “They should take these accidents critically and implement a company-wide technique to guard their workers from these well-known and preventable hazards.”
Amazon has stated it intends to enchantment the citations.
“We take the protection and well being of our workers very critically, and we do not consider the federal government’s allegations replicate the fact of security at our websites,” Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel informed CNET. “We have cooperated with the federal government by its investigation and have demonstrated how we work to mitigate dangers and preserve our individuals secure, and our publicly accessible information present we diminished damage charges within the US practically 15% between 2019 and 2021.”
In a current win for staff, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed the Warehouse Worker Protection Act in December, which now requires logistics corporations with warehouse operations to reveal quotas to workers, in addition to protects staff who fail to fulfill quotas that have not been disclosed or do not enable for legally mandated breaks.