Report: Excessive Charge of Accidents Amongst State’s Amazon Warehouse Staff| Staff Compensation Information

Friday, July 9, 2021 | 0

People who work in Amazon warehouses are twice as likely to suffer serious injuries as those who work in other Pennsylvania warehouses, according to a report by the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Amazon reported 7.2 serious injuries – those that resulted in people missing work or being assigned light tasks – for every 200,000 hours worked in its Pennsylvania warehouses. The Inquirer said this corresponds to 7.2 injuries per 100 full-time equivalents.

For comparison, the Inquirer reports that among all other warehouses in the state, the injury rate was 3.9 per 100 full-time equivalents.

The Inquirer’s article continues a trend of reports of high injury rates at Amazon facilities.

The Washington Post reported in June that the statewide injury rate in Amazon warehouses in 2020 was 5.9 per 100 full-time equivalents. The rate among any other camp in the country was 3.1 major incidents per 100 full-time equivalents.

The Post noted that the 2020 number is actually an improvement over 2019, when Amazon reported 7.8 serious injuries per 100 full-time employees.

The newspaper identified several facilities where the average injury rates since 2017 have been between four to almost six times the national average. The average accident rate at the Amazon warehouse in DuPont, Washington is 17.9 serious injuries per 100 full-time employees; in Tracy, Calif., the injury rate is 15.5 per 100 workers; in Obetz, Ohio, the rate is 13.1; in Kent, Washington, the rate is 12.9; and in Fall River, Massachusetts, the rate is 12.8.

In Washington state, the Department of Labor and Industry has created an industry classification for Amazon fulfillment centers only to account for different injury rates compared to other warehouses in the state.

“Company concerns about inventory classification led L&I to review the classification and determine that fulfillment centers are at higher risk compared to the rest of the industry,” the department said. “For this reason, L&I has decided to place fulfillment centers under their own classification from January 1, 2021, separately from general warehouses.”

With the new class code, the rate for Amazon fulfillment centers increased from $ 1.8898 per hour in 2020 to $ 2.1733 per hour. At the same time, the tariff for all other warehouse operations fell from $ 1.8898 to $ 1.5142.