Amazon hired 33% of all US warehouse staff in 2021, however was once answerable for 49% of all accidents within the business, consistent with a document printed Tuesday via the Strategic Organizing Middle (SOC), a coalition of 4 exertions unions.
The SOC, which is made up of Provider Workers Global Union, Global Brotherhood of Teamsters, Communications Employees of The usa, and United Farmworkers of The usa, analyzed 2021 damage knowledge that Amazon submitted to the Hard work Division’s Occupational Protection and Well being Management.
In 2021, there have been 38,334 overall recordable accidents at Amazon amenities, and amongst the ones, kind of 34,000 had been regarded as severe accidents the place the employees may now not carry out their common jobs or needed to omit paintings consequently.
Consistent with the document, Amazon reported 6.8 severe accidents for each 100 of its warehouse staff. Via comparability, different warehouses reported 3.3 severe accidents for each 100 staff, the document stated. The damage charges are calculated as aggregates of charges at particular person places.
The brand new document, which notes that damage charges stay upper on the corporate’s robot warehouses than its non-robotic warehouses, discovered a notable decline in accidents in 2020 in comparison to the yr prior. The document notes Amazon’s transient easing of productiveness monitoring within the previous months of the pandemic as a conceivable contributor.
In a observation in regards to the SOC document, Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel stated the corporate has employed “tens of hundreds of extra other people to assist us meet the unexpected call for from Covid-19.”
“Like different firms within the business, we noticed an building up in recordable accidents all the way through this time from 2020 to 2021 as we educated such a lot of new other people — alternatively, whilst you examine 2021 to 2019, our recordable damage price declined greater than 13% yr over yr,” stated Nantel.
The SOC document displays that the damage price closing yr is the second-highest within the corporate’s previous 5 years, with the yr 2019 recording the very best price.
“Whilst we nonetheless have extra paintings to do and would possibly not be glad till we’re very good in terms of security, we proceed to make measurable enhancements in decreasing accidents and retaining workers secure, and respect the paintings from all of our workers and security groups who’re contributing to this effort,” stated Nantel.
