Amazon was hit with an unusually forceful safety citation by federal investigators within the US at the moment. The findings seem to again up what some staff on the firm have lengthy alleged: that the net retail big’s warehouse and achievement amenities are designed for pace over security, inflicting lower-back accidents and different musculoskeletal issues at excessive charges.

The citation released by the Occupational Health and Safety Administration at the moment concluded that Amazon was “failing to keep workers safe.” The firm didn’t correctly defend them from hazards more likely to trigger “serious physical harm,” the company claims. Despite years of allegations from staff and state-level investigations into Amazon’s harm charges, at the moment’s motion introduced the primary federal fines imposed on Amazon for employee musculoskeletal accidents.

“The citations are actually very substantive,” says Debbie Berkowitz, a former senior adviser for OSHA and a employee security fellow at Georgetown University. The investigation was unusually massive for OSHA, and it’s the company’s first to require that Amazon implement fundamental ergonomic rules to forestall harm, she says. The identical investigation led OSHA in December to quote Amazon for failing to file and report work accidents and sickness.

Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel says the corporate intends to attraction the company’s findings. “We’ve cooperated fully, and the government’s allegations don’t reflect the reality of safety at our sites,” she says. “The vast majority of our employees tell us they feel our workplace is safe.” The federal authorities doesn’t present particular ergonomics steerage, and Amazon has invested important money and time in decreasing musculoskeletal danger, Nantel says, citing Amazon knowledge that exhibits harm charges falling nearly 15 p.c between 2019 and 2021.

OSHA’s findings at the moment echo analysis from a coalition of labor unions primarily based on previous harm knowledge from the company that concluded Amazon’s warehouse harm charges are sometimes no less than double that of Walmart, its nearest competitor in measurement and scope. During the 2022 vacation season, warehouse staff described to WIRED their private battles with exhaustion from overwork, wrist accidents, loud noise, and high-speed productiveness expectations. 

The severity of the condemnation within the new federal quotation was not matched by the penalty. If Amazon loses its deliberate attraction, it must pay a proposed superb of $60,269—a mere quantity relative to its practically $1 trillion market capitalization.

OSHA fines for very particular, repeated, and drastic violations can improve to hundreds of thousands of {dollars}. The oil firm BP has confronted a number of fines amounting to over $10 million for spills and refinery accident-related violations. But the cap on fines for the forms of security violations that may trigger again accidents, fractures, or sprains is way decrease, creating little monetary incentive for firms to alter. “OSHA’s fines have historically been incredibly low, but the company got the highest fines possible, I believe, for every violation cited,” Berkowitz of Georgetown says.

OSHA usually tries to steer firms like Amazon to forestall future accidents by means of detailed letters of inspection that embrace solutions to enhance processes inflicting harm. Those “hazard” letters were sent on January 17 to three Amazon facilities that OSHA inspected throughout the course of this investigation, in Deltona, Florida; Waukegan, Illinois; and New Windsor, New York.

One letter despatched to the Waukegan facility describes greater than 20 sprains, fractures, bruises, and lacerations to toes, arms, faces, and different physique elements attributable to staff shedding management of packages weighing over 50 kilos.