Amazon to pay fine, institute safety measures at Colorado warehouses to settle hazardous working condition claims
DENVER – Amazon will pay $145,000 and institute various safety measures to settle a series of cases – including two in Colorado – brought by the U.S. Department of Labor over hazardous working conditions.
The federal investigation marks the first major multisite probe brought by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in more than a decade, the agency said in a news release last month. OSHA’s investigation into ergonomic safety issues is unprecedented, experts say, due to a lack of established legal standard for this type of workplace danger.
The federal investigation, which began in summer 2022, found Amazon exposed warehouse workers to a high risk of lower-back injuries and other musculoskeletal disorders. Employees at 10 warehouses – including facilities in Aurora and Colorado Springs – were subjected to awkward twisting, bending and extending themselves to lift items, a high frequency of lifting packages and long hours to complete assigned tasks.
“Workers face immense pressure to meet pace of work and production quotas at the risk of sustaining musculoskeletal injuries, which are often acute,” federal investigators wrote in a letter to Amazon in its Aurora citation.
OSHA in 2023 proposed fines against the e-commerce giant of $15,625 apiece for violations of ergonomic safety requirements at warehouses in Aurora and Colorado Springs. The department also proposed fines over similar complaints in New York, Florida, Idaho, Pennsylvania, Illinois and New Jersey.
“This corporate-wide settlement agreement focuses on improving conditions for several hundred thousand Amazon workers nationwide,” Assistant Secretary for Occupational Safety and Health Douglas L. Parker said in a statement. “The agreement requires Amazon to assess ergonomic risk across its facilities, including through annual updates, and investigate and implement controls to reduce ergonomic risk. The ball is in the company’s court.”
The agreement will apply to all Amazon fulfillment centers, sortation centers and delivery stations and provides for an alternative dispute resolution process designed to address and correct ergonomic hazards brought up by Amazon workers.
The company agreed to meet every two years with federal officials to discuss data and elements of Amazon’s corporate ergonomic program.
“(The) agreement acknowledges our progress and notes that we should keep implementing and following our existing comprehensive ergonomics policies and procedures,” Amazon said in a statement. “There isn’t a claim of wrongdoing on Amazon’s part for the withdrawn citations, nor a directive to adopt new safety controls.”
Amazon still faces a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into whether the company engaged in a fraudulent scheme to hide its true injury rates at warehouses around the country.
Numerous studies and federal data show workers at Amazon facilities are injured at rates far above the national average.
A 2023 study from the Center for Urban Economic Development at the University of Illinois Chicago found 41% percent of workers report being injured while working at an Amazon warehouse. Nearly 70% of workers said they had to take unpaid time off due to pain or exhaustion from working at the company in the past month, the study found.Another report released last year by the National Employment Law Project found Amazon accounts for 79% of U.S. employment at warehouses with at least 1,000 workers, but 86% of all injuries. Amazon’s injury rate last year was more than one-and-a-half times that of TJX (which owns T.J. Maxx, Marshalls and other large stores) and almost triple the rate of Walmart, the report found.