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Amazon Warehouse Injuries '80% Higher' Than Competitors, Report Claims (bbc.com) 67

Posted by BeauHD from the industrial-athletes dept.
smooth wombat writes: Problems at Amazon warehouses are well known, such as employees not having enough time to use the restroom (and getting docked pay for doing so) to insufficient protections during the pandemic, which lead to numerous deaths and nearly 20,000 infections (Note: the total number of infections is both Amazon and Whole Foods. Amazon declined to provide a break out of infections at each location). Now comes a union-backed study which indicates the number of injuries at Amazon warehouses is 80% higher than its competitors.

The BBC reports: "This new study comes from the Strategic Organizing Center (SOC), a coalition of labour unions. It analysed workplace safety data reported to the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration from 2017 to 2020. It found that 'workers at Amazon warehouses are not only injured more frequently than in non-Amazon warehouses, they are also injured more severely.' Workers forced to take time off for injuries were absent for an average of 46.3 days, it said -- a week longer than the average across the warehouse industry. And compared to its largest retail competitor Walmart, Amazon's overall injury rate was more than double, at 6.5 per 100 employees compared with three."

In response to the study, Amazon equated its workers to industrial athletes. "Just like an athlete who trains for an event, industrial athletes need to prepare their bodies to be able to perform their best at work," it warns. "Some positions will walk up to 13 miles a day... [others] will have a total of 20,000lb (9,072kg) lifted before they complete their shift," it said.
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Amazon Warehouse Injuries '80% Higher' Than Competitors, Report Claims More

Amazon Warehouse Injuries '80% Higher' Than Competitors, Report Claims

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  • Injury free packaging. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Ostracus ( 1354233 ) on Wednesday June 02, 2021 @06:36PM (#61448754) Journal

    Part of this come from those preparing "frustration free" packaging for customers. Who knew clam-shells and box cutters didn't mix.

    • So much for "Work smarter, not harder."
    • AI and robots in warehouses? Make *them* open those things -- it's not like they'll complain about a few nicks and scratches [gotfuturama.com].

    • Part of this come from those preparing "frustration free" packaging for customers. Who knew clam-shells and box cutters didn't mix.

      Undoubtedly.

      I wonder if mass acceptance of marijuana [npr.org] will affect these tabulations positively or negatively.

    • It got modded insightful. No, people don't open clamshells and repack them. Amazon orders custom packaging that's in simple cardboard packaging. They're big enough they can get custom packaging for a lot of items from the manufacturer. They're not doing this out of the goodness of their hearts, mind you, it's cheaper for them, but it works out for the consumer who doesn't want/need the extra, pain in the neck packaging. But the packaging comes from the manufacturer like that. It's not added after the fact.
    • Do you have a citation? A search of the report for mentions of clam, box, cut and frustration finds no references.

  • The 16 oz wrist curls in front of the fridge, and the refrigerator door pull needs more reps, or a complete makeover.

  • Um (Score:4, Insightful)

    by cascadingstylesheet ( 140919 ) on Wednesday June 02, 2021 @06:45PM (#61448776) Journal

    to insufficient protections during the pandemic, which lead to numerous deaths and nearly 20,000 infections (Note: the total number of infections is both Amazon and Whole Foods.

    Out of how many? You can't just give one part of a ratio.

  • Athletes (Score:4, Insightful)

    by clawsoon ( 748629 ) on Wednesday June 02, 2021 @06:49PM (#61448788)

    And like most athletes, I wouldn't be surprised if many careers are cut short in their 20s because of injuries and unlikely to last past your 30s even if you're lucky.

    Making the physical sacrifices that athletes make and taking the risks that they take is only worth it if there's the chance of a major league salary. I'm pretty sure Amazon doesn't pay those to their warehouse workers.

    • And like most athletes, I wouldn't be surprised if many careers are cut short in their 20s because of injuries and unlikely to last past your 30s even if you're lucky.

      Making the physical sacrifices that athletes make and taking the risks that they take is only worth it if there's the chance of a major league salary. I'm pretty sure Amazon doesn't pay those to their warehouse workers.

      I"m pretty sure that Amazon didn't invent physical jobs. They just happen to be the biggest employer at a time when our society has become dumb enough to need somebody to explain what a physical job is.

      • It's true that Amazon didn't invent physical jobs. It's even true that they didn't invent pushing employees past their physical limits - that's been going on at least since the first time a convict was made to grind grain all day on a medieval treadmill.

        What Amazon did invent was this dumb "industrial athletes" analogy in an attempt to make what they're doing to their employees sounds like an admirable thing.

      • > I"m pretty sure that Amazon didn't invent physical jobs. They just happen to be the biggest employer at a time when our society has become dumb enough to need somebody to explain what a physical job is.

        They happen to be the biggest employer, with an injury rate of 6.5 per hundred compared to their biggest competitor, Walmart, with an injury rate of 3 per hundred.

        Remember when Wal-mart was "the crappiest place to work"? Well, Amazon is more than twice as bad.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by ranton ( 36917 )

        Im pretty sure that Amazon didn't invent physical jobs.

        They aren't comparing Amazon warehouse workplace injuries to accountants or software developers. They are comparing them to warehouse employees at competitors such as Walmart. It seems to be a pretty good apples to apples comparison. Of course there are going to be more injuries at warehouses than a standard office environment, but if Amazon warehouses are far more dangerous than average warehouses there is something to be investigated.

  • Don't let Wall Street hear this; Amazon's competitors "could be up to 80% more productive than they currently are."

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by nomel ( 244635 )

      Yeah, I'm surprised the metric was "injuries per 100" rather than "injuries per # packages" or "per lbs of packages" or something else related to productivity. Otherwise it's "Hey, my empty warehouse had 0 injuries this month!"

      • I wonder how many warehouses are quite as busy as Amazon's.

        For example, I've worked in a retail warehouse before. There were periods of extreme labor when trucks came in, but other than that it was only pulling stock when orders came in, and I could easily read most of the time then. And that's with me doing all but running picking up the goods in order to get back to my book.

        Or you could be looking at a warehouse that doesn't deal with individual consumer goods at all - but everything is palletized, so y

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by ranton ( 36917 )

          I wonder how many warehouses are quite as busy as Amazon's.

          That is exactly the problem. If the solution is for Amazon to have more warehouses and/or more staff so the workers aren't as busy, so be it. No company's response to a dangerous work environment should be "but it allows us to make more money."

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by kqs ( 1038910 )

          Sure, but if I worked at a busy place which therefore had a much higher chance of injuries, I'd expect to be compensated for that and I'd expect the employer to take steps to reduce injuries (if you are moving 2x the product you should be able to afford more people, shorter shifts, longer breaks). Since I don't see any of that at Amazon warehouses, I'm pretty sure I don't care that they are more busy; that's an excuse not a valid reason.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by ranton ( 36917 )

        Yeah, I'm surprised the metric was "injuries per 100" rather than "injuries per # packages" or "per lbs of packages" or something else related to productivity.

        When your goal is to measure employee safety, their productivity shouldn't be very relevant. Injuries per hour worked is a much better metric. Otherwise work which makes the employee more productive (which primarily helps the business) at the expense of worker safety (which primarily affects the employee) would be incentivized.

  • The wellness program [vice.com] accompanied with tiny boots to lock themselves in will surely will help them feel better and ignore their aching bodies deprived of bathroom breaks.
  • Well given they also announced they were going to stop testing for marijuana usage, this problem should just solve itself.

    /irony, and clearly no correlation.

    • They are still testing for it's use in/after any accident/injury (just like alcohol). Just not testing for it as part of any standard drug screening (again, just like alcohol).

  • These things happen (Score:5, Funny)

    by boudie2 ( 1134233 ) on Wednesday June 02, 2021 @07:09PM (#61448826)
    If you don't like your job, you don't strike! You just go in every day, and do it really half assed. That's the American way. - Homer Simpson.
  • Some positions will walk up to 13 miles a day. Why? [Others] will have a total of 20,000lb (9,072kg) lifted before they complete their shift. Why?

    • Amazon's huge selection of products mean they need huge warehouses... Segway devices were invented specifically for this situation.

    • "Some positions will walk up to 13 miles a day. Why?"

      Plenty of waiters/waitresses/hosts/mailmen will walk 10+ miles in a shift and no one seems to worry about that.

      "[Others] will have a total of 20,000lb (9,072kg) lifted before they complete their shift. Why?"

      If you have to lift/move boxes that are 25lbs each, that would be 800 boxes. Over an 8 hour shift, that is 100/hour or 1.6 per minute. For 50lb boxes, that would be less than 1 per minute. I'm not saying that's an easy gig, but its not impossible. I su

  • Where are the workers getting injured? Robots do pick & pack mostly. Is it when the stuff is being unloaded off the trucks? Or when it's being loaded onto the trucks?

  • 100 years ago, these would hardly be called injuries. Back then you'd have to hope your horse didn't buck you off. You'd have to hope that you didn't get an infection and die.

    Now the bar has changed so much. You have multiple watchdog groups. You have a society that is hyper focused that no one should ever experience an injury or an emotion outside of happiness.

    I haven't known a single person that works at Amazon that doesn't want the job. I haven't met anyone that says that its either Amazon or the p

    • Ah yes, the old "the world used to be a terrible place and I want to go back there" argument.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by kqs ( 1038910 )

      100 years ago, these would hardly be called injuries.

      100 years ago the US was forming unions. Note that we didn't create unions because we wanted more red tape, bureaucracy, unfairness, and corruption. We formed unions because 100 years ago the working conditions were so incredibly terrible that all of the workers said "We know we'll get red tape, bureaucracy, unfairness, and corruption, but IT'S STILL BETTER THAN WHAT WE HAVE NOW."

      And with the full court press to weaken and discredit unions, we're edging back towards those terrible working conditions. Sig

    • 100 years ago, the average lifespan was under 65. People have to live with those minor injuries, often for the rest of their lives. Also, I do not think you want to bring in "workplace" injury data from Guatemala. The vast difference in standard-of-living between the United States and Guatemala can not be measured in dollars alone.

  • this report is obviously bullshit. Also the editors here are lazy af shills.

  • Athletes? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by alzoron ( 210577 ) on Wednesday June 02, 2021 @07:29PM (#61448880) Journal

    Amazon equated its workers to industrial athletes. "Just like an athlete who trains for an event, industrial athletes need to prepare their bodies to be able to perform their best at work

    Curious, does Amazon also pay their employees as well as athletes?

    • I'm very sure that it's between the error bars such that Amazon employees all earn more than the lowest paid athletes, and more than the highest paid.

      After all, college athletes are paid $0. Cristiano Ronaldo earned $120M vs Bezo's salary of $1.7M.

      Or did you forget that 99% of professional, much less semi-pro athletes are paid like crap?

    • More to the point, how does their pay scale (and overall compensation package) for warehouse employees compare with other companies warehouse employees (Walmart, Target, Macy's, Stop & Shop)? If the pay is significantly better, then it might be fair to say that they are expecting a significantly higher performance level.

    • Re:Athletes? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by sunking2 ( 521698 ) on Wednesday June 02, 2021 @09:04PM (#61449068)

      As well as any athlete that nobody watches or cares about.

      • AAA ball players earn something like $11k/year:

        https://twitter.com/jc_bradbur... [twitter.com]

        Granted that was four years ago. Allegedly the MLB is trying to address the problem. They're also trying to eliminate a lot of minor league franchises. Make of that what you will.

        A lousy temp at Amazon could make over $31k/year assuming Amazon didn't lay them off so frequently.

    • like college athletes.

    • "Curious, does Amazon also pay their employees as well as athletes?"

      According to The Athletic, the average player salary for a minor league player was $6,000 in Single-A, $9,350 in Double-A and $15,000 in Triple-A in 2018.

      Amazon averages $15/hour for warehouse workers. That is ~30k/year.

      Both are entry level type jobs and neither are expected to make a 40+ year career out of.

  • No shock that Amazon is a bad place to work. It's also filled with fly-by-night operators who just resell sale items from Costco at double the price with shipping tacked on as well.

  • They're about to stop the drug testing for workers, then!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by waspleg ( 316038 )

      It's the North Korean way. Work people to death but let them be high so they stay passive.

  • Amazon should hire taller workers.

  • The study (Score:3)

    by kaatochacha ( 651922 ) on Thursday June 03, 2021 @11:04AM (#61450794)

    Preface: I don't like Amazon, I refuse to buy from them, I shop local if possible, I see them as a blight.

    That being said, when I read "Now comes a union-backed study ", I ignored everything following it.

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