A U.S. Congressman is calling for an OSHA investigation into Amazon warehouses over “skyrocketing” injury rates at its New Jersey facilities.
Congressman Donald Norcross of New Jersey, a member of the Workforce Protections Subcommittee of the House Education and Labor Committee, said that he is “deeply troubled by the injury rates at Amazon facilities in New Jersey and nationwide.”
“Workplace safety at Amazon’s New Jersey warehouses is clearly not a priority, otherwise the rate of injury would be decreasing — not skyrocketing,” said Congressman Norcross in a news release. “This apparent disregard for the health and wellbeing of Amazon warehouse workers is unacceptable.”
In response, Norcross wants OSHA to conduct a “prompt and comprehensive investigation” into Amazon’s New Jersey warehouses to identify deficiencies in the company’s policies and culture.
Norcross pointed out that injury rates at non-Amazon warehouses “are so much lower.”
Injury rates increase 54% 2020-21
Amazon’s injury rates in its New Jersey warehouses increased by 54% from 2020 to 2021, according to data the company provided to OSHA and an analysis conducted by New Jersey Policy Perspective and Rutgers University.
Fifty-five percent of those injuries were categorized as serious, according to the report. A report by the Strategic Organizing Center found the serious injury rate among Amazon workers nationwide was 88% higher than the serious injury rate at all other similar employers in 2021.
