A congressional investigation into worker safety at Amazon found that the retailer manipulated data on warehouse worker injuries and disregarded internal research on improving safety. We are so very shocked! Via the Washington Post:
The report was released late Sunday by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension, or HELP, Committee, chaired by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont).
“In its endless pursuit of profits, Amazon sacrifices workers’ bodies under the constant pressure of a surveillance system that enforces impossible rates,” Sanders said in a written statement.
The committee found that Amazon workplaces recorded 30 percent more injuries in 2023 than the warehousing industry average and that the company cherry-picks statistics to hide the fact that its warehouses are significantly more dangerous than other companies’ facilities.
A Washington Post analysis of federal data in 2021 found that Amazon’s injury rates were nearly double those of other businesses in the warehousing industry.
The lawsuit, filed Monday in a Denver state court, alleges Amazon’s working conditions forced drivers in Colorado to urinate in bottles and defecate in bags inside the delivery trucks and refrain from using the bathroom “at risk of serious health consequences.”
