An investigation led by Senator Bernie Sanders has found that Amazon drives its United States warehouse workers to fulfill orders at speeds that risk causing high injury rates, despite being aware of the dangers.
The report accused Amazon of rejecting changes that could have slowed workers’ pace but improved safety, prioritizing its bottom line instead.
Amazon dismissed the report as “wrong on the facts,” claiming it relied on “selective, outdated information that lacks context and isn’t grounded in reality.”
“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.
Amazon, which employs approximately 800,000 people in the U.S., has long faced accusations of unsafe warehouse conditions.
These concerns intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic, as the surge in e-commerce demand sparked worker protests globally.
Amid the controversy, founder Jeff Bezos acknowledged the need for Amazon to improve conditions for its employees.
In June 2023, Senator Bernie Sanders, known for his pro-worker advocacy, launched an investigation into the company’s practices. The probe involved 135 interviews and the review of over 1,000 documents.
An analysis of public records revealed that Amazon warehouses recorded over 30% more injuries than the industry average for warehousing in 2023.
The report, endorsed by Democratic members of the Senate’s Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, found that Amazon workers were nearly twice as likely to be injured as those in warehouses operated by other companies over the past seven years.
According to the investigation, Amazon had internally studied the link between workplace speed and injury rates, including through a review called Project Soteria.
However, the report stated that the company chose not to implement recommended changes, such as offering workers more time off and stopping disciplinary actions against those who failed to meet speed targets.
Investigators also accused Amazon of attempting to “manipulate” data to mislead the public about its safety record.
In response, Amazon argued that it was reasonable for the company to focus safety comparisons on its larger warehouses.
Amazon accused the Senate investigation of overlooking inconvenient facts, such as a decline in its injury rates and a recent court victory that dismissed safety complaints.
The company also claimed that another team, tasked with reviewing the recommendations from its internal safety study, found the methodology to be “unsound.”
Nothing” is more important to the firm than employee safety, Amazon said.
