According to leaked data , it appears that Amazon's automated warehouses have higher injury rates
Since 2014, the company has been touting the efficiency and safety of its new automated fulfillment centers, where robots help employees process packages. But it turns out that automation can do far more harm to the company’s employees than Amazon has led the public and lawmakers to believe.
In a new report, the Research Center Reveal found that between 2016 and 2019, the rate at which company employees suffered serious injuries was 50% higher in warehouses where the company has robots.
"We strongly reject claims that we have misled the public. At Amazon, we are known for our obsession with customers, but we are also obsessed with our employees and their safety," a company spokesperson told Engadget.
These facilities have some of the highest worker injury rates of any Amazon warehouse. Last year, for example, a facility south of its Seattle headquarters called BFI3 had a rate of 22 serious injuries for every 100 workers. Reveal points out that's five times higher than the industry standard and higher than the company average.
«The Reveal is misinformed and driven by a sense of activism rather than journalism. The reporter misrepresents data, and the very internal documents he claims to have obtained ultimately show one thing – we have a deep focus on the safety of our teams. We look at a variety of metrics to assess the effectiveness of our safety programs, but Reveal misreported an OSHA safety metric that measures the number of days off and work restricted or transferred (known as the DART rate) as something the reporter incorrectly calls a serious incident rate. The truth is, there is no such thing as an OSHA or industry “serious incident rate,” and the DART rate actually supports employees by encouraging someone with any type of injury, such as a minor sprain, to stay off work until they are better.”
What makes injuries more likely in automated warehouses is that the company has unrealistic expectations of the human employees who work there. Where workers previously had to scan about 100 items every hour, Amazon now expects them to scan up to 400 products in the same amount of time. These employees can’t work with the robots without getting injured.
Additionally, Reveal found that Amazon was either slow or uninterested in listening to federal regulators on the issue. In 2015, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) outlined policies that Amazon could implement to keep employees safe at a robotic warehouse in New Jersey. For example, one suggestion was to rotate employees between different jobs throughout their shift to prevent repetitive strain injuries. Reveal found that Amazon has yet to implement these measures in its warehouses.
When asked about its automated warehouses, an Amazon spokesperson told Reveal that «the use of robotics, automation and technology in the centers enhances the workplace, making jobs safer and more efficient.»»
“While we often offer employees time off so they can continue to work with full pay and benefits, we do not believe an employer should be penalized for encouraging an associate to stay away from work if doing so will better advance healing . As a company, while we continually learn and improve from the past, we are focused on inventing programs that create a safer work environment and provide comprehensive health benefits, from the very first day of employment. We continue to see improvements in injury prevention and reduction through programs that focus on improved ergonomics, providing guided fitness and wellness exercises, providing mechanical workstation support equipment, improving workstation setup and design, and using telematics to separate equipment from pedestrians.”
Injuries, however, are more common in the company's warehouses during the holiday season and Prime Day. In 2019, Amazon recorded 14,000 serious injuries across 150 centers, with injury rates increasing year over year.
