Amazon, OSHA reach settlement over warehouse safety citations

Federal safety regulators have dropped nine of 10 citations accusing Amazon of putting warehouse workers at a high risk of injury, part of a settlement agreement that requires the company to continue finding ways to reduce injuries.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration began a series of investigations at 10 Amazon facilities around the country in 2022, resulting in allegations that the company had created an unsafe working environment and exposed workers to a high risk of injury.

In one New York facility, OSHA also accused Amazon’s in-house medical team of failing to properly refer injured workers to outside medical care.

In a settlement reached Wednesday, OSHA dismissed nine of the 10 citations related to ergonomics—accusations related to workplace injuries from things like repetitive motions.

OSHA also dropped the citation related to medical treatment at the New York warehouse, Amazon said.

Amazon accepted one of the citations related to how workers handle televisions in an Illinois warehouse and said it will make changes to further reduce the risk of injury in that facility. It will pay a $145,000 penalty for that citation, an increase from the original citation’s $15,625 fine.

The agreement did not include an admission of wrongdoing on Amazon’s part. The company committed to continuing some of its existing safety protocols, including safety committee meetings with employees, ongoing assessments of its work processes and mandatory employee training.

Both OSHA and Amazon are characterizing the settlement agreement as a victory.

Douglas Parker, assistant secretary for OSHA, said the agreement will improve conditions for several hundred thousand Amazon workers because it requires Amazon to assess injury risk companywide.

“The ball is in the company’s court,” Parker said in a statement. “OSHA stands ready to work with their ergonomics team to evaluate their progress and verify the commitments they made to OSHA.”

Amazon said on Thursday the agreement “acknowledges our progress … We appreciate OSHA’s willingness to consider all the facts and reach today’s agreement with us, and we look forward to continuing to work with them going forward.”

Amazon and OSHA agreed to meet twice a year to discuss injury trends and steps the company has taken to reduce risk, including the status of pilot projects in its warehouses.

The settlement comes ahead of a new presidential administration that will likely shake up the federal regulatory agencies. President-elect Donald Trump is considering Heather MacDougall, Amazon’s former vice president of health and safety, to lead OSHA.

The agreement also comes days after Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., released a scathing report about Amazon’s warehouses. Sanders and the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions accused Amazon of ignoring suggestions about how to reduce the injury rate at its warehouses from the company’s internal studies.

Amazon denied the allegations in the Senate committee’s report and said those studies had flawed methodology and proposed changes that later proved to be ineffective.

Earlier this year, Amazon scored another victory in its warehouse safety story when a Washington judge overturned four citations accusing the company of creating an unsafe working environment at warehouses in the state.

Washington’s Department of Labor and Industries appealed that ruling, but the Board of Industrial Insurance Appeals upheld the decision. L&I can now appeal to Superior Court.

Amazon also faces an ongoing investigation from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York to determine if Amazon executives knew about safety hazards in its warehouses and misled others about the company’s safety record. OSHA said Thursday that the settlement agreement does not affect the ongoing investigation.

Amazon spokesperson Maureen Lynch Vogel said the company believes the U.S. attorney’s “legal theory lacks merit,” and that Amazon is cooperating fully in the investigation.

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