Amazon workers are getting seriously injured on the job at an alarming pace, according to a new report based on federal data.
Injuries at delivery stations, the last stop before products are delivered to customers’ doors, were more than double the industry average over the last two years, according to an analysis of data from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration by the Information. The analysis blamed a high-pressure work environment and overworked employees at the nation’s biggest retailer.
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“Working at an Amazon delivery station, a small shipping hub where delivery vans whiz in and out daily, appears to be the most hazardous warehouse job of all,” the study said.
Amazon, the country’s second-largest private employer, has received several complaints over the years about the pace it requires employees to sort packages, and it could face new regulations due to a California state law under consideration regarding warehouse quotas.
The report stressed the injuries went beyond “minor scrapes or bruises,” including only those that required medical treatment beyond first aid.
The company did not respond to a request for comment from the Washington Examiner but told the study’s author it is working to improve its safety record.
“Our teams’ safety is incredibly important to us, and we know we still have work to do to get to where we want to be,” said Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel. “This is a long-term effort, and we’re making progress by listening to our employees and partners, investing heavily in people, training, tools, and technology, and working with outside experts like the National Safety Council.”
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In its quest to expand delivery stations quickly, Amazon has inaccurately submitted to OSHA how many employees it has at its centers on more than 100 occasions — significantly overstating the number of employees it had in 2019, according to the Information.
Having fewer employees on hand in the delivery centers is likely to have played a role in the pressures to perform within a fast-paced environment with a lot of machinery.
Amazon has aggressively scaled up the number of delivery stations nationwide in recent years as it has grown and sought to become more independent from third-party shippers like UPS and the U.S. Postal Service. Amazon had 159 delivery station centers at the end of 2019 and 337 at the end of 2020, according to one estimate.
“There won’t be an ounce of soil in America that Amazon can’t reach with its own fleet,” Marc Wulfraat, the president of MWPVL, a consulting company that tracks the growth of Amazon’s operation, told Supply Chain Dive.
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Within three to five years, there could be over 1,500 delivery stations, Wulfraat added.
