Senate report accuses Amazon of ignoring worker safety in productivity push

New York CNN — Amazon is disregarding its own research that shows warehouse employees are facing an increased injury threat due to its focus on productivity, according to Senate investigators. The Senate committee report, first reported by the New York Times, is titled “The ‘Injury-Productivity Trade-off’: How Amazon’s Obsession with Speed Creates Uniquely Dangerous Warehouses.” “Amazon’s executives repeatedly chose to put profits ahead of the health and safety of its workers by ignoring recommendations that would substantially reduce injuries at its warehouses,” Sanders said in a statement. “This is precisely the type of outrageous corporate greed that the American people are sick and tired of.” The report says that many Amazon warehouse workers “live with severe injuries and permanent disabilities because of the company’s insistence on enforcing grueling productivity quotas and its refusal to adequately care for injured workers.” The report also said investigators found “evidence that Amazon is aware of the safety risks caused by the speed it demands of its workers,” citing Amazon’s own internal worker safety studies, which they accused Amazon of not adhering to. Bing Guan/Bloomberg/Getty Images An Amazon internal report cited by Senate investigators, titled Project Soteria, found there was a relationship between the speed of tasks that workers performed and their rate of injury. In response, Amazon described Project Soteria as “outdated” and “inaccurate,” as well as “analytically unsound.” Amazon said its injury rate at its US warehouses fell 28% from 2019 to 2023 when measuring injuries that require more than basic first aid, and that it reduced injuries that led to workers missing time off work by 75% during the same period.