Amazon Prime Day is a major cause of injuries for workers

Senator Bernie Sanders' report reveals Amazon's Prime Day sales event leads to high injury rates for warehouse workers.

Amazon’s popular Prime Day sales event has been “a major cause of injuries” for warehouse workers who pick and pack customer orders at the e-commerce giant’s facilities across the United States, according to a report released Tuesday by Senator Bernie Sanders.

The report, which draws information from a year-long Senate committee investigation into Amazon’s safety practices and relied on internal company data from 2019 and 2020, found peak shopping times — including the holiday shopping period — resulted in the “highest weekly injury rates” for warehouse workers.

The preliminary report from Mr. Sanders’ office was also based on interviews with more than 100 current and former Amazon employees. This year’s two-day Prime Day event started Tuesday.

In a statement, Mr. Sanders said the “incredibly dangerous working conditions at Amazon” highlighted in the report are a “perfect example of the type of corporate greed that the American people are sick and tired of”.

“Despite making $36 billion in profits last year and providing its CEO with over $275 million in compensation over the past three years, Amazon continues to treat its workers as disposable and with complete contempt for their safety and well-being,” said the Vermont independent, who has been critical of Amazon and supports worker efforts to unionise at the company. “That is unacceptable, and that has got to change,” he added.

Labour unions and safety experts have long criticised Amazon, alleging the company’s focus on speed and fast deliveries puts workers in danger. In recent years, some States have passed laws aimed at Amazon to curb the use of warehouse productivity quotas, but Amazon claims it doesn’t employ them.

According to the Senate report, 45 out of 100 warehouse workers at Amazon received injuries during the 2019 Prime Day event. The number included minor injuries the company was not required to disclose to the federal government, such as bruises and superficial cuts, but also serious ones such as concussions that should have been reported, it said.