This week, a Senate committee helmed by noted populist firebrand Bernie Sanders published a report accusing e-commerce giant Amazon of having fostered a working environment that is dangerous to its workers’ health. Worse, the report claims that the company has been aware that its internal policies are harming its workers but that it has repeatedly chosen to ignore those harms for the sake of corporate profit. Amazon has roundly rejected the report’s conclusions.
The report, which was produced by the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, reveals that Amazon has conducted a number of internal studies designed to assess risks to worker health and safety. Those reports, variously dubbed “Project Elderwand” and “Project Soteria,” ultimately found that the company’s quota system (in which workers are required to meet certain productivity thresholds) and its focus on speed (workers are pressured to complete tasks quickly, the report claims) was driving workers to injure themselves. The reports suggested that Amazon relax its quota requirements so as to refrain from harming its workers. However, the New York Times writes that the company’s top executives ultimately “rejected the recommendations” from its internally commissioned reports.
Indeed, the committee said that it had found that “Amazon is not only aware of the connection between speed and injuries, but also that the company specifically rejected potential safety improvements, accepting injuries to its workers as the cost of doing business.” The report further notes, “Incredibly, while the company refuses to adopt” its own “recommended safety improvements, it also presents a misleading narrative about its injury rates and claims its warehouses are far safer than they truly are.”
The injuries in question seem to stem from workers having to replicate repetitive physical movements throughout the workday, the report states. “Amazon forces workers to move in unsafe ways and to repeat the same movements hundreds and thousands of times each shift, resulting in extremely high rates of musculoskeletal disorders,” the report states, noting that while the company is “aware that these repetitive movements—made over 10- to 12-hour shifts—cause musculoskeletal disorders, the company refuses to take action to protect workers.”
“Amazon’s refusal to protect workers is particularly egregious given its incredible financial resources,” the report notes, reminding readers that Amazon is the “sixth largest company in the world and the second-largest private employer in the United States” and that Jeff Bezos, the company’s founder, is the third richest man in the world.
When reached for comment by Gizmodo, an Amazon spokesperson claimed that the report was based on outdated information that Amazon had since discredited. “Senator Sanders’s report is wrong on the facts and weaves together out-of-date documents and unverifiable anecdotes to create a preconceived narrative,” a statement provided by Amazon spokesman Steve Kelly reads. “The facts are, our expectations for our employees are safe and reasonable.”
“Despite that, and the fact that Sen. Sanders approached this process with a pre-conceived narrative, we’ve cooperated with Sen. Sanders and his staff throughout this investigation, providing thousands of pages of documents and other information,” the statement continues. “We’ve also repeatedly asked Sen. Sanders to visit one of our facilities so he can see our working conditions firsthand. Unfortunately, these invitations have gone unanswered.”
Despite the company’s rebuttal to the report’s findings, the Times notes that the “findings in the Senate report are consistent with investigations conducted by state and federal regulators in recent years.”
.png)
English (US) ·