News / Amazon faces more scrutiny as US authorities probe workplace safety

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Amazon is in hot water over the handling of hazardous materials in its warehouses, accused of providing inadequate hazmat training to warehouse staff and “sacrificing thoroughness for speed, jeopardising staff health”.

A report in the Seattle Times, Amazon’s home base, has brought to light a citation served by Washington State’s Department of Labor & Industries (DLI) after a complaint at Amazon’s facility in Spokane.

This involved an employee who had noticed that a container of mould remover was leaking and was ordered by her manager to clean up the spill, despite her protestations she was not trained for that.

Other Amazon workers have also reported having to clear up spills of hazardous materials without adequate training.

After an inspection of the Spokane facility, the DLI criticised Amazon for failing to properly train workers on how to handle hazardous materials and for failing to ensure that employees wore appropriate eye protection.

But these problems go well beyond Amazon’s facility in Spokane, according to the Seattle Times, which discovered six complaints involving hazardous materials in Amazon facilities in Washington state. The DLI issued four citations, which resulted in $81,000 in fines.

Amazon disputes the claims, stating all its front-line employees are given safety training, including instructions on how to identify and handle chemicals. As for chemical spills, only trained workers were eligible to clean these up, the company declared.

DLI inspectors diagnosed “a disconnect on safety between management and workers” and found Amazon’s training not effective.

Accusations of unsafe working conditions in Amazon warehouses are nothing new. Incidents have been reported for more than a decade, amid claims that working in the firm’s facilities carries a higher risk than in other warehouses – largely attributed to the high degree of automation and the related pace, described as challenging for humans to match.

After embarking last year on a national investigation into ergonomic injuries, the US Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) slapped some $150,000 in fines on Amazon between January and August, accusing the company of creating hazardous working conditions and failing to record work-related injuries at warehouses across the country.

Recently it recommended a penalty of $15,625 over working conditions at Amazon’s facility at the Logan township in New Jersey, where it found employees were subject to stress that was prone to causing muscular disorders, as well as injuries. According to the agency, Amazon also failed to ensure that injured workers received adequate treatment.

A new complaint has emerged from a worker advocacy group, claiming excessive, unsafe work rates and mistreatment by in-house medial staff at an Amazon warehouse near St Louis, and in July the Washington DLI fined Amazon $85,800 for unsafe working conditions at Spokane, finding the required work pace was creating an elevated risk of musculoskeletal disorders, strains, sprains and tears.

Amazon disputes these findings and claimed the rate of worker injuries had improved significantly since 2019, as it keeps investing in new equipment, training and procedures.

The company is under the gun not only from OSHA and Washington State’s DLI. The attorney general for the Southern District of New York is examining allegations that Amazon conceals workplace injuries, while a Senate committee is investigating the rate of worker injuries at the company, together with employee turnover and productivity quotas.

Critics of the e-commerce giant hope the elevated scrutiny may have an impact. Some have commented that the fines imposed are tiny in comparison to Amazon’s operating costs, and offer no significant lever on its workplace processes and policies.