New York Offers Model on Amazon Warehouse Safety if Law Survives

A New York law aiming to reduce injuries in Amazon warehouses is well-positioned to become a model for other states, although it’s not entirely safe from an industry-led legal challenge.

The state is set to impose new workplace ergonomics requirements on large warehouse operators this year under a measure (S5081C) Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) signed into law in 2024. Hochul struck a deal with legislators to soon revise the law to loosen the definition of an ergonomics expert who’s qualified to conduct site safety assessments.

It’s the latest in a string of state and federal efforts to address concerns over higher-than-average injury rates at warehouses in general and Amazon facilities specifically.

Workplace safety lawyers disagree about the potential for the New York law to be preempted by federal authority. The US Occupational Safety and Health Administration doesn’t have a federal ergonomics standard, so the state has leeway to enact tougher standards and enforcement mechanisms than what OSHA currently has on the hazard, said Michael Duff, a professor at St. Louis University School of Law.

He described this concept as “empty preemption"—when federal law, which preempts the state law, is either weak or says nothing substantive at all.

“It’s only logical that states would try to find a way out of the OSHA lockbox,” Duff said, since the OSH Act is weak.

States with their own job safety enforcement scheme or legislatures in federal OSHA states such as New York will fill the void in hazard areas like ergonomics where the newly-installed Trump administration isn’t expected to act, according to Eric J. Conn, co-founding partner of Conn Maciel Carey.

“The New York law is truly a landmark law. It shows that state governments like New York can take the helm on issues like ergonomics and injury prevention,” said Irene Tung, a senior researcher and policy analyst at the National Employment Law Project.

Connecticut lawmakers, for example, have considered warehouse safety legislation that mirror the New York law, she said. California and Oregon have limited warehouse operators’ use of productivity or work-speed quotas, and they could expand their laws with more prescriptive ergonomics requirements.

Minnesota and Washington state already require workplace ergonomics standards to varying degrees.

OSHA’s previous attempt at implementing a federal ergonomics standard in 2000 was repealed via congressional review. Since then, OSHA has attempted to address ergonomics through guidelines and issuing citations under the general duty clause. Amazon and OSHA agreed in December to settle nine of 10 pending citations, with Amazon committing to improve safety at hundreds of its warehouses.

Potential for Challenges

Litigation contesting the New York law would likely come from industry rather than OSHA, Conn said. The federal agency is prohibited from issuing a rule that is substantially the same as the rescinded ergonomics rule.

“I don’t think the federal government would be successful in saying ‘you can’t regulate this area where we at the federal level have also not regulated this hazard,’” Conn said.

But an industry-led challenge claiming the New York law is preempted by OSHA’s federal authority is possible, said Charles B. Palmer, a workplace safety attorney at Michael Best & Friedrich LLP in Wisconsin.

An employer or industry association could argue the federal agency has field preemption covering workplace safety broadly and New York lacks a state OSHA plan covering private-sector employers. Additionally, the settlement with Amazon bolsters a challenger’s argument that the federal government is exercising authority over warehouse safety, he said.

“The Amazon settlement really seals the deal for the preemption argument in this particular situation,” Palmer said. “There’s no argument that OSHA isn’t occupying that field.”

Injury Rates

Once the bulk of the new law takes effect June 1, employers will have to hire safety experts to conduct risk assessments and implement their recommendations for lowering the risk of injury, potentially including a reduction in the work speed or productivity quota expectations. The law also requires ergonomic safety trainings and proper qualifications for any on-site medical staff.

Worker advocates are hopeful the law could bring down the frequency of musculoskeletal injuries among warehouse workers.

“The warehouse industry in New York has grown rapidly in recent years, and safety has just not been a priority,” said Lucas Shapiro, deputy director of ALIGN, a policy group that advocated for the New York legislation. High incomes and population density have made the state attractive for Amazon to use as an early test market for programs such as same-day delivery, he added.

A report released by Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) in December found Amazon recorded 30% more injuries than the industry average in 2023. Research from the National Employment Law Project also found the retail giant plays an outsize role in the problem of warehouse worker injuries, as NELP estimated the industry’s injury rate to be twice that of other private-sector industries.

Amazon previously disputed the findings of the Sanders’ report, including the claim that it systemically underreported injuries.

The company has spent more than $1.5 billion on safety initiatives since 2019 and continues to improve its operations to reduce risk of injury, spokesperson Maureen Lynch Vogel said via email.

“We’re proud of our safety progress, which includes a 28% improvement to our recordable incident rate since 2019, and a 75% improvement to our lost time incident rate which measures how often the most serious injuries occur,” she said.

Warehouse work is inherently prone to injuries, and it’s unclear how effectively the New York law can reduce injury rates, said Aarti Chandan, a labor and employment attorney with Bond, Schoeneck & King PLLC in New York.

“How do you take away that inherent risk?” she said. “It might have a more positive effect in terms of awareness, but at the same time I think these warehouse workers are already well aware of the risks of the job.”