Nearly one in five Amazon delivery drivers gets hurt on the job each year, new report says

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One in five delivery drivers working for Amazon was injured on the job in 2021, a new report says.

The similar report, launched Tuesday by a coalition of labour unions, discovered one in seven was injured so severely they needed to both change their job or take time without work following an harm.

“Amazon’s delivery quotas and manufacturing strain are contributing to an escalating harm disaster amongst employees in each phase of Amazon’s delivery system,” the Strategic Organising Centre’s report learn.

“Amazon claims to have taken a number of steps to advertise security,” it continued. “Amazon has refused, nevertheless, to deal with the core challenge that fuels accidents in its delivery system: abusive delivery manufacturing calls for.”

Injuries for employees in Amazon’s delivery system — together with delivery drivers in addition to workers at delivery stations and sortation centres — jumped by 38% in the previous yr, in line with the organising centre, which has pushed Amazon to modifications office insurance policies beforehand. The similar group launched a report in April that discovered accidents at Amazon warehouses elevated about 20% from 2020 to 2021.

The charge of significant accidents for drivers jumped 47% in the previous yr, in line with the most up-to-date report.

Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel mentioned the report used a small pattern of employees and drivers to “deliberately misrepresent the details.”

“Safety is a precedence throughout our community, which is why we have rolled out expertise like progressive digital camera programs which have helped result in an general discount in accident charges of practically 50%,” Nantel mentioned in an emailed assertion. “We’ll maintain investing in new security instruments to try to get higher each day.”

On the heels of a profitable union drive at an Amazon warehouse in Staten Island, the firm is going through strain from workers, state and federal regulators, and a few shareholders to enhance working circumstances for its blue-collar workforce. Federal lawmakers have referred to as for an investigation into Amazon’s practices after six folks died whereas working at an Amazon warehouse in Edwardsville, Illinois. Washington regulators have issued 4 citations, alleging the firm’s tempo of labor is resulting in unsafe working circumstances at Amazon amenities.

During some shifts, a delivery driver working with Amazon in Sacramento, California, is anticipated to make a delivery each minute or two, the Strategic Organising Centre report discovered.

Injury charges at Amazon’s sortation centres, the place workers type orders by last vacation spot, elevated 20%, whereas charges at its delivery stations, the place employees prep packages for the delivery to clients doorsteps, went up 15%.

The SOC analysed knowledge that Amazon and its delivery service companions — unbiased delivery corporations who workers and function Amazon-branded vans to deliver packages from distribution centres to clients’ doorsteps — submitted to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. It analysed knowledge from 201 of Amazon’s roughly 2,500 U.S.-based delivery service companions.

Amazon says harm charges at the firm are literally happening, citing a US$300mil (RM1.3bil) funding in new applied sciences and new protocols to enhance working circumstances. Amazon’s personal evaluation discovered the lost-time incident charge, a measure of the variety of accidents that resulted in missed work, improved 43% from 2019 to 2020, in line with a report the firm launched this yr. The report didn’t embody an evaluation of 2021.

Researchers at the Strategic Organising Centre do not agree. Amazon is relying on outdated numbers, the report mentioned, and is leaving out a big chunk of its workforce by not together with contracted delivery service companions who account for about half of all Amazon delivery system employees.

Amazon “cherry picked” the knowledge they selected for their very own evaluation, mentioned Eric Frumin, the well being and security director with the Strategic Organising Centre. In addition to leaving out contractors, Amazon in contrast itself solely to business rivals with a minimum of 250 employees, he mentioned, regardless of the indisputable fact that a lot of Amazon’s delivery stations and sortation facilities do not fall into that class.

In a letter to shareholders in April, CEO Andy Jassy mentioned Amazon’s harm charge was “misunderstood,” explaining that Amazon truly break up its workforce into two classes when evaluating itself to others in the similar industries: warehouse employees, and courier and delivery service employees.

By that logic, Amazon’s harm charge was larger than its warehouse friends — 6.4 versus 5.5 — however decrease than its delivery friends — 7.6 versus 9.1. Amazon is “about common relative to friends,” Jassy wrote in his letter. “But we do not search to be common. We wish to be greatest in class.”

Amazon has come beneath hearth for its anticipated tempo of delivery in the previous, most notably when some drivers mentioned publicly they needed to resort to urinating in bottles, bushes and occasional cups as a result of the variety of deliveries anticipated each shift did not depart time for a loo break.

In April, a delivery firm in Wyoming sued Amazon on behalf of the 2,500 delivery service companions working with the firm in the US, alleging Amazon set unrealistic and unsafe expectations for drivers. Owner Max Whitfield mentioned in the lawsuit he typically needed to ship out a “rescue” driver to assist an “overburdened” employee already on the street.

In Colorado, an insurance coverage firm discovered Amazon delivery drivers had a better charge of animal-related accidents or slip-and-fall incidents than drivers for different corporations, the SOC report mentioned.

Drivers “make it crystal clear the supply of the drawback — it is the manufacturing strain,” Frumin mentioned. “These are circumstances that the firm imposes and the firm can take away.” – The Seattle Times/Tribune News Service



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