Amazon Prime Day Leads to Workplace Injury Spike, Democrats Say

Amazon.com Inc.'s Prime Day sales event is a major cause of workplace injuries for warehouse workers, according to a new report from Senate Democrats on the labor panel chaired by Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).

Nearly 45 injuries per 100 workers were recorded during Prime Day 2019 in Amazon warehouses, the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee report released Monday found. The figure marks a high rate of workplace safety issues for the company as it starts its trademark annual two-day event that generates billions in revenue.

“The incredibly dangerous working conditions at Amazon revealed in this investigation are a perfect example of the type of corporate greed that the American people are sick and tired of,” Sanders said in a statement accompanying the report Tuesday. “Despite making $36 billion in profits last year and providing its CEO with over $275 million in compensation over the past three years, Amazon continues to treat its workers as disposable and with complete contempt for their safety and wellbeing.”

The committee’s findings mark another battle in the increasingly tense relationship between lawmakers on Capitol Hill and the retail giant. Sanders launched a probe into Amazon last year, and a bipartisan group of senators introduced warehouse worker safety legislation in May that specifically targets the company’s practices.

The HELP committee spoke with over 100 Amazon employees across the country as part of its investigation, and said it found that “Amazon’s busiest periods—Prime Day and the holiday season—are by far the most dangerous,” according to the report. Workers have to process twice as many packages during those periods, one worker told the panel.

The increased burden is especially difficult at understaffed warehouses, with internal documents showing that Amazon only had 54.7% success in meeting its hiring targets, the report found. Short-staffing is so “pervasive” that company training materials use the lack of workers as reasoning for an injury on the job, the HELP committee said.

The company has long rejected assertions from lawmakers that Amazon is an unsafe place to work. A spokesperson Kelly Nantel said in a statement Tuesday that since 2019 Amazon has reduced its recordable incident rate in the US by 28%, and significant injuries by 75%.

“We’ve cooperated throughout this investigation, including providing thousands of pages of information and documents. But unfortunately, this report (which was not shared with us before publishing) ignores our progress and paints a one-sided, false narrative using only a fraction of the information we’ve provided,” Nantel said.

The company also rejected the assertion that it’s understaffed.

“We carefully plan and staff up for major events, ensure that we have excess capacity across our network, and design our network so that orders are automatically routed to sites that can handle unexpected spikes in volume,” Nantel said. “If someone wants to truly understand the facts about our safety record and our progress toward being the safest company in the industries in which we operate, we encourage them to review our annual safety report or come visit one of our fulfillment sites to see for themselves.”

In addition to scrutiny over safety standards, lawmakers are also focused on Amazon’s use of independent contractors. In a May letter to the company, senators said Amazon exerts control over its delivery drivers while avoiding employer obligations by contracting them out. However, evidence points to a joint employment relationship that imposes more responsibilities on the company, lawmakers on of both sides of aisle said.