Amazon Safety Inspections Likely Part of Wider Criminal Inquiry

The Justice Department investigation into Amazon.com Inc. worker safety likely will dig into questions of whether the online retailer engaged in widespread misreporting of injury and illness rates, criminal and labor law scholars say.

“I don’t think the US attorney’s office would become involved unless there was some evidence that there was a pattern of practice of Amazon in concealing information from OSHA, trying to hide its safety record from OSHA, lying to OSHA inspectors over a concerted period of time,” Chicago Law School professor Jonathan Masur told Bloomberg Law in an interview.

The US Occupational Safety and Health Administration ...