Senate probe finds Amazon manipulated worker injury data : NPR

A Senate committee investigation accused the nation’s largest online retailer Amazon of putting workers at risk of injury in the name of speed — while manipulating workplace injury data to portray its warehouses as safer than they truly are.

The findings were released late Sunday by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension (HELP) Committee, led by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.

The report stems from an 18-month investigation that reviewed seven years of Amazon workplace injury data and interviewed over 130 Amazon workers.

It found that despite Amazon’s claims of safe working conditions, company data showed that its warehouses have “significantly higher” injury rates than both the industry average and non-Amazon warehouses.

More specifically, over the past seven years, Amazon workers were nearly twice as likely to be injured compared to workers at other warehouses in the sector. The report also found in 2023, Amazon warehouses recorded more than 30% more injuries than the industry average.

It concluded that Amazon workers were put in harm’s way by being forced to work at “an extremely fast and often dangerous pace.” Although the company has safety protocols, the report said “the company’s required rates make those procedures nearly impossible to follow.”

“Amazon’s continued and daily endangerment of the nation’s second largest private-sector workforce must end. The United States Congress cannot allow any company to treat its workers as disposable,” the report said.

On Monday, Amazon rejected the investigation’s findings, asserting that the company has made significant safety improvements over the years, even while consumer demand has surged.

“This investigation wasn’t a fact-finding mission, but rather an attempt to collect information and twist it to support a false narrative,” the company said in a statement.

This is not the first time Amazon has faced accusations of injury rates that far exceed the industry average — which the company has described as flawed. Amazon has claimed its true injury rate is only “slightly above” the average.

On Sunday, the congressional report rejected Amazon’s defense, arguing that the company’s comparisons are misleading. The report said Amazon compares its warehouses of all sizes to the industry average for only large warehouses (those with 1,000 or more employees) which tends to have higher injury rates — thus making Amazon’s injury rate appear lower. Many Amazon warehouses employ fewer than 1,000 people

“If the injury rate at Amazon’s warehouses was compared to the average injury rate for all of the nation’s warehouses — instead of just those included in the company’s preferred subcategory — Amazon’s safety record would look much more troubling,” the investigation found.

Amazon said on Monday it stood by its methodology in comparing injury rates.

The report also accused Amazon of discouraging injured workers from seeking outside medical care. After reviewing citations, hazard alerts from federal inspectors and testimony from injured workers and safety personnel, the investigation found that Amazon’s on-site health facilities “obstruct” workers from getting necessary care beyond first aid.

“The staff do this by blaming workers for their injuries, failing to obtain expert consults, and refusing to refer workers to outside care,” the report said.

The HELP panel is the latest group to accuse Amazon of unsafe working conditions.

Last year, the Occupational Safety and and Health Administration found that the movements that some Amazon warehouse workers perform — including twisting, bending and long reaches as much as nine times per minute — put them at high risk for lower back injuries and other musculoskeletal disorders.

Sunday’s congressional report also found cases of workers suffering from “chronic pain, loss of mobility, temporary and permanent disabilities, and diminished quality of life” due to injuries sustained in Amazon warehouses.

Amazon is among NPR’s recent financial supporters.