NEW YORK (Washington Insider Magazine) – As the Justice Department probes into potential safety hazards and whether injuries were concealed, federal workplace inspectors visited Amazon warehouses in a number of locations on Monday, a U.S. official said.
According to a representative for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan, the Occupational Health and Safety Administration visited facilities outside of Orlando, Chicago, and New York City.
The spokesperson, Nicholas Biase, stated that “Amazon’s required pace of work for its warehouse employees” is one of the potential workplace risks.
On Tuesday, a separate Amazon representative verified a worker’s passing. NBC New York said that the worker passed away earlier this month at an Amazon Prime Days facility in New Jersey.
Amazon warehouse employees who have attempted to organize unions have criticized the speed and workplace conditions.
Amazon was reprimanded and fined by Washington state’s Labor department in March for “strenuous work at an unsafe pace” at a Kent fulfillment facility.
A representative for Amazon said the corporation fiercely disagreed with the labor agency and planned to appeal, according to NBC station KING of Seattle.
Biase stated on Monday that OSHA visited the warehouses on referrals from the Southern District of New York’s US Attorney’s Office. One of the most well-known federal prosecutor’s offices in the country is the U.S. attorney’s office.
Although the U.S. attorney’s office provided avenues for members of the public, former employees, and present workers to report problems, Biase’s statement made no explicit mention of any occurrences at Amazon warehouses.
In addition to failure to disclose accidents and a failure to obtain necessary treatment at Amazon’s first-aid facility or as offered by the corporation, it noted safety concerns relating to the pace of work.
In his farewell letter to shareholders, Jeff Bezos, who founded Amazon and served as its CEO until stepping down last year, criticized claims that claimed employees were treated like robots, saying “that’s not accurate.”
Bezos stated in the April 2021 letter that “We don’t set unreasonable performance goals” and added that staff members are free to take additional unscheduled breaks in addition to their scheduled ones.
According to a representative for the Department of Labor, the department often gets referrals from law enforcement, federal agencies, and other organizations. The government launched investigations at Amazon facilities in Florida, Illinois, and New York.
Staff at a Staten Island, New York, warehouse cast the nation’s first unionization ballot in April.
The Amazon Labor Union, which was founded independently by past and present employees of the digital giant, won the support of the workers at the Staten Island facility. In May, employees at a second Staten Island factory rejected unionization.
