{"id":38258,"date":"2023-07-20T13:55:57","date_gmt":"2023-07-20T17:55:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/news\/amazon-trial-could-pave-the-way-for-holding-the-company-accountable-on-warehouse-safety\/"},"modified":"2023-07-20T13:55:59","modified_gmt":"2023-07-20T17:55:59","slug":"amazon-trial-could-pave-the-way-for-holding-the-company-accountable-on-warehouse-safety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=38258","title":{"rendered":"Amazon trial could pave the way for holding the company accountable on warehouse safety"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Working conditions at Amazon warehouses will be front and center starting Monday during a first-of-its-kind trial, as the company appeals Washington state Occupational Safety and Health Administration citations for violations at some of its Seattle-area warehouses. <\/p>\n

A trial before the Washington Board of Industrial Insurance Appeals, expected to stretch over the next few months, is the first for the company over an OSHA violation \u2014 and could lead the way for other states that want to hold Amazon
\n AMZN,
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\n accountable for worker safety, worker advocates say.<\/p>\n

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This month and next, the state\u2019s Department of Labor and Industries plans to call several expert witnesses and Amazon workers, according to a witness list filed with the appeals board. From September to October, Amazon will call witnesses including its own experts, managers and employees, its witness list shows. The hearings will be available to watch on the appeals board\u2019s website.<\/p>\n

Amazon\u2019s appeal is related to four citations issued to the tech and retail giant in the past couple of years for violations at three different warehouses in Washington, in Dupont, Sumner and Kent. The violations for which Amazon was cited by the state\u2019s Department of Labor and Industries involve ergonomic concerns about warehouse workers\u2019 duties \u201cthat are causing or likely to cause serious injury,\u201d according to the citations. Those duties include heavy lifting by hand, repetitive motions and other movements that could cause back injuries and other musculoskeletal disorders. <\/p>\n

In its 2022 opposition to Amazon\u2019s request for a stay of abatement of the alleged violations, the Labor and Industries department said Amazon\u2019s Kent warehouse \u201chas some of the highest injury rates of any warehouse in the U.S.\u201d The department also noted that the case is likely to be litigated and could end up before the Washington Supreme Court, and that \u201cAmazon is requesting that it be allowed to do almost nothing to lower its injury rates over the course of the several years this matter is likely to be in the court system.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe look forward to showing that L&I\u2019s allegations are inaccurate and don\u2019t reflect the reality of safety at Amazon,\u201d Maureen Vogel, a spokesperson for the company, said this week. Vogel said the company has improved its recordable-injury rates at its sites in Dupont and Kent.<\/p>\n

Proposed monetary penalties for violations at each of the warehouses total in the thousands and tens of thousands of dollars \u2014 a drop in the bucket for Amazon, which has a market capitalization of almost $1.4 trillion.<\/p>\n

But Eric Frumin, the health and safety director for the Strategic Organizing Center, an alliance of three labor unions, said Monday during a news briefing about the upcoming trial that \u201cremedy for workers is the focus \u2026 and the most important repercussion.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cAmazon needs to fix the problems\u201d so workers can continue to work for the company safely, Frumin said.<\/p>\n

The violations listed in the citations are similar to violations the federal OSHA has asked Amazon to address in several other warehouses around the U.S. this year. <\/p>\n

Last year, OSHA opened a multistate investigation into Amazon\u2019s warehouse conditions after a referral by the U.S. attorney\u2019s office for the Southern District of New York, and issued citations against the company as a result of those probes. In December, OSHA cited the company for record-keeping violations. In January and February, the agency issued citations for violations at seven Amazon warehouses in five different states, including accusations of unsafe working conditions and ergonomic practices.<\/p>\n

From the archives (January 2023): <\/strong>Amazon cited for warehouse working conditions \u2018designed for speed but not safety\u2019<\/p>\n

The SOC has repeatedly brought attention to injury rates at Amazon warehouses. In April, the organization issued a report that showed worker serious-injury rates at Amazon warehouses in 2022 were double those of other warehouse workers, a finding the company disputed. Amazon\u2019s own numbers showed improvements in lost-time incident rates \u2014 or \u201cthe most serious injuries that require someone to take time off,\u201d according to the company \u2014 from 2019 to 2022, it said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Amazon warehouse working conditions have also caught the attention of officials in Washington, D.C. Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent, launched an investigation last month and asked current and former workers and others to share their experiences related to the company\u2019s warehouse working conditions.<\/p>\n

From the archives (February 2023): <\/strong>Amazon gets 3 more warehouse-safety citations as OSHA warns company to \u2018take these injuries seriously\u2019<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Read the full article here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Working conditions at Amazon warehouses will be front and center starting Monday during a first-of-its-kind trial, as the company appeals Washington state Occupational Safety and Health Administration citations for violations at some of its Seattle-area warehouses. A trial before the Washington Board of Industrial Insurance Appeals, expected to stretch over the next few months, is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38259,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[236],"tags":[83],"class_list":["post-38258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-featured","post_format-post-format-gallery"],"yoast_head":"\nAmazon trial could pave the way for holding the company accountable on warehouse safety | iFintechWorld<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Working conditions at Amazon warehouses will be front and center starting Monday during a first-of-its-kind trial, as the company appeals Washington state\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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