Senate report alleges Amazon rejected warehouse safety recommendations due to productivity concerns
At least two internal Amazon studies have found a correlation between how fast the online retailer’s warehouse employees performing tasks and workplace injuries, but the company rejected many safety recommendations out of concern that the proposed changes could reduce productivity, according to a Report of the United States Senate Committee.
The 160-page summary released Sunday evening was compiled by the Democratic majority staff of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. The report is the final product of an investigation into Amazon’s warehouse safety practices that U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders initiated last year.
The Vermont independent, a frequent critic of Amazon and chair of the panel, issued an interim report in July detailing some of the study’s findings. The final report, based largely on interviews with nearly 500 former and current Amazon employees, included more details, including the two internal investigations and the responses they received within the company.
Amazon walked back the findings on Monday, saying: a blog post that Sanders “continues to mislead the American public” about the company’s safety practices and that the report was “wrong on its facts and contains selective, outdated information that lacks context and is not based on reality.”
The Senate report states that Amazon launched an internal investigation in 2021 to determine the maximum number of times a warehouse worker can perform the same physical tasks without an increased risk of harm and possibly developing musculoskeletal disorders.
The team that conducted the Amazon study, known as Project Elderwand, focused on workers choosing items from robotic shelves. The study concluded that the “likelihood of back injury increases” along with the number of items selected and identified an upper limit for repetitive movements – 1,940 – per 10-hour shift, the report said.
The study recommended using software to enter breaks “based on each employee’s rate.” It proposed expanding an existing Amazon program that recommended “microbreaks” and making them mandatory for employees working above the maximum pace.
The team stated that the success of a mini-pilot program to test its idea would be dependent on “any negative impact on the (employee) or customer experience,” according to documents cited in the committee report.
Ultimately, Amazon made no changes to reduce repetitive worker movements, the report said. The company told the Senate committee that it chose not to do so for “technical reasons” related to the proposed software program, the report said.
Amazon also said in its blog post that the Project Elderwand pilot program showed that the research team’s proposed intervention was “ineffective.”
Amazon had previously conducted another study in 2020, known as Project Soteria, to identify risk factors for injuries and recommend policy changes that would improve worker safety. The multi-team initiative studied two policies that Amazon temporarily implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic: giving employees more time off and suspending disciplinary actions “for employees who did not meet speed requirements,” the report said.
The study found that both policies reduced injury risk and called for their permanent adoption.
But company executives rejected the request, saying it could “negatively impact” productivity, according to Amazon documents cited in the Senate committee report. Amazon leaders also changed the focus of the Project Soteria investigation, telling the people conducting the review to make recommendations on how to improve productivity without worsening worker injuries, the report said.
Amazon disputed the report’s characterization of events.
“Project Soteria is an example of this type of team evaluation, where one team investigated whether there was a causal relationship between work rate and injuries, and another team evaluated the methodology and findings and determined that they were not valid,” said Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel. in a written statement.
Nantel also said information about Project Soteria emerged in a worker safety case in Washington state in which Amazon was accused of four safety violations. A judge assigned to the case ruled in favor of Amazon in July. Supervisors will appeal the ruling.
“It’s unfortunate that the senator chose to ignore the facts and the entire context,” Nantel said.
The Senate committee report also alleged that Amazon manipulates its workplace injury data to portray its warehouses as safer than they are, a claim the company disputed.
Amazon said it produced “thousands of pages of information and data” for the committee. However, most staff said the company had failed to provide documentation on the link between work pace and injuries.
The author of the committee report said they learned about the two internal investigations from the Washington worker safety case, not from Amazon. Once committee staff members identified the studies by name, they contacted the company, which ultimately provided the individual documents.