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Why Amazon workers are twice as likely to be badly injured compared to other warehouse staff

Amazon warehouse

Amazon warehouses unsafe as accidents escalates

Amazon workers make up a third of all the warehouse staff in the US - and are twice as likely to be badly injured at work than other companies.

The data from Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) found Amazon employees are twice as likely as other warehouse workers to be badly injured.

The numbers reveal 49 percent of all warehouse accidents in 2021 happened in the warehouses of Amazon.

READ MORE: AMAZON CALLS FOR UNION ELECTION RE-RUN AFTER CLAIMING TURNOUT WAS SUPPRESSED

The report deems "severe injuries" to be those in which employees must either take time off to heal or have their workloads reduced.

It was taken from OSHA’s report classification of “cases with days away from work” and “cases with job transfer or restriction.”

The company has shifted more toward placing individuals on light duty than having them take time off.

Amazon employees recover from accidents for a longer period which is generally 62 days. 

But the average recovery period across the industry is 44 days.

Amazon workers said that it's not the labor itself that's risky, but the rigorous pace that the company's automated systems need.

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Amazon actually made workers run slower in 2020 to help reduce COVID-19, which explains the significantly lower injury rates that year.

Injuries climbed by almost 20 percent between 2020 and 2021 as the firm resumed its normal pace — however injury rates in 2021 were still lower than in 2019.

Amazon has been criticized several times for poor treatment of its workers, which motivated them to form unions at the company’s warehouses.

Source: The Verge

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