What’s New
Amazon neglected to adopt key safety recommendations from internal studies in an effort to keep productivity up, according to a U.S. Senate committee report.
Why It Matters
Two internal Amazon studies—Project Elderwand (2021) and Project Soteria (2020)—identified direct connections between work speed and increased risk of injuries. Project Elderwand, which focused on workers handling items from robotic shelves, concluded that exceeding 1,940 repetitive movements per 10-hour shift elevated the risk of back injuries.
The team proposed mandatory “microbreaks” tailored to individual workers’ rates, but the team stated that the success of a mini pilot program to test out its idea would be conditional on “any negative impact to the (workers) or customer experience,” according to documents cited in the committee report.
Ultimately, Amazon did not make changes to reduce repetitive worker movements, the report said.
The company told the Senate committee it chose not to do so due to “technical reasons” involving the proposed software program, the report said.
COVID-19 Policies
Similarly, Project Soteria suggested that policies introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic, such as more flexible schedules and suspending speed-related disciplinary actions, reduced injury risks. The study found that both policies lowered injury risks and asked for their permanent adoption. However, these recommendations were rejected by leadership, citing concerns over potential productivity losses, according to Amazon documents cited in the Senate committee report.
Amazon leaders also changed the focus of the Project Soteria study by telling the people conducting the review to provide recommendations on how to improve productivity without worsening worker injuries, the report said.
What To Know
The 160-page document, released by the Democratic majority of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), details findings from nearly 500 interviews with current and former Amazon employees.
Bernie Sanders’ Involvement
The report is the final product of a probe into Amazon’s warehouse safety practices that Senator Bernie Sanders initiated last year. The Vermont independent, a frequent critic of Amazon who chairs the panel, released an interim report in July that featured some findings from the investigation.
What People Are Saying
Amazon dismissed the Senate report as misleading and inaccurate. In a blog post, the company said that Sanders “continues to mislead the American public” about the company’s safety practices and that the report was “wrong on the facts and features selective, outdated information that lacks context and isn’t grounded in reality.”
Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel further argued that Project Soteria’s findings lacked validity and noted that a related worker safety case in Washington state had been decided in Amazon’s favor.
“Project Soteria is an example of this type of team evaluation, where one team explored whether there’s a causal link between pace of work and injuries and another team evaluated the methodology and findings and determined they weren’t valid. It’s unfortunate that the senator chose to ignore the facts and all of this context,” Nantel said.
Despite Amazon’s denials, the Senate report claims that the company manipulated injury data to present its warehouses as safer than they are. Investigators said they only became aware of the internal studies through external sources and had to request specific documents after Amazon initially failed to disclose them.
While Amazon said it produced “thousands of pages of information and data” for the committee, the majority staff, however, said the company failed to produce documents on the connection between the pace of work and injuries.
What Happens Next
While the findings revisit debates over corporate accountability and the balance between productivity and employee welfare, Amazon has continued to emphasize its commitment to safety.
However, the company is expected to continue to face scrutiny as regulators appeal rulings in its favor. The report’s implications could also further fuel calls for stricter oversight and legislative action to protect warehouse workers nationwide.
This article includes reporting from The Associated Press.
The post Amazon Ignored Safety Warnings to Keep Productivity Up: Senate Report appeared first on Newsweek.
