Warehouse Worker Resource Center

Improving working conditions in the warehouse industry in Southern California

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Report: Amazon’s California Injury Rate Jumped 30% in 2021, Despite Company’s Safety Pledge

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ONTARIO, Calif.  — A disturbing analysis of newly released Amazon injury records shows that injury rates at its facilities increased by a staggering 20 percent from 2020 to 2021.  The report finds Amazon warehouse workers were seriously injured at twice the rate of other warehouse employers at 6.8 per 100 workers, as compared to 3.3 per 100 for all other employers in the warehouse industry. 

Download the PDF report. 

A review of California-specific data shows that injury rates in California increased 30 percent, to a rate that was over 60% higher than the rate of injuries at other warehouse companies in the state.

For years, Amazon’s warehouses and related logistics operations in California have led the nation in the number of serious injuries among warehouse workers. In 2021, the injury crisis for its warehouse workers got even worse. Compared to 2020, Amazon’s California warehouse workers suffered ten injuries for every 100 full-time workers – a 30% increase from the already high rate of 7.7 per 100 full-time workers in 2020. 

“Too many people who work in Amazon facilities get injured. The data shows that this company continues to prioritize speed and profits at a terrible cost to the health and well being of its employees,” said Sheheryar Kaoosji, executive director of the Warehouse Worker Resource Center. 

California is a major market for Amazon. In 2021, Amazon had a total of 123 fulfillment centers, sortation centers and delivery stations in California, with a total of 77,664 workers. 

The Injury Machine: How Amazon’s Production System Hurts Workers, published April 12 by the Strategic Organizing Center, examines Amazon’s safety and injury trends across a five-year period, focusing on the most recent employer-reported data from 2021 released earlier this month by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). According to the report, the company’s crushing work pace, punitive surveillance programs and the prevalence of robotics technology only heightens pressure on workers and fuels the nation’s second-largest private employer’s alarming injury rates, despite Amazon executives’ promises to improve safety at its warehouses.

“Amazon’s back-breaking work pace is only getting worse,” said Eric Frumin, Director of Health and Safety at the Strategic Organizing Center. “The very same year that Amazon promised to address worker safety, injury rates shot up 20 percent, facilities with robotic technology became more dangerous — and Amazon spent millions of dollars to mislead the public about the reality in their warehouses. The company’s obsession with speed is crushing tens of thousands of workers each year, and Amazon seems to have no plan to stop.”

Nationally, workers at Amazon facilities suffered nearly 40,000 injuries in 2021, according to SOC’s analysis. While Amazon employed 33% of all U.S. warehouse workers in 2021, the company was responsible for 49% of all injuries in the warehouse industry last year.

Key findings in the California data include:

  • The Redlands, Calif. fulfillment Center (known as ONT9) had the highest year-on-year increase in 2021 of any large Amazon warehouse in the state. After already being the third-worst large warehouse in the state in 2020, the overall injury rate at ONT9 jumped by another 26% in 2021 – a clear indication of the management’s failure to focus on the most urgent safety problems in the state.
  • Workers at 51 of the largest logistics centers in California suffered a total of 5,848 injuries and illnesses in 2021, of which fully 5,119, or nearly 90%, were serious enough to either force the workers to stop working entirely, or require them to switch to another job.
  • At 36 of those 51 sites, so many warehouse workers were injured that the injury rates exceeded Amazon’s already terrible 2021 national average warehouse injury of 7.9 cases/100 workers.

Among these were the massive multi-thousand-employee facilities in San Bernardino (ONT5), Moreno Valley (ONT6), Rialto, Eastvale, Bakersfield, Beaumont and Fresno, which together accounted for over 1700 injuries in 2021.

The SOC report also finds that new robotic technology in 2021 that Amazon claimed “could make work safer for employees” may not have had that impact. Serious injury rates at Amazon’s sortable facilities with robotic technology grew by 20 percent from 2020 to 2021. In 2021, these facilities had a serious injury rate of 7.3 per 100 workers — 28 percent higher than the rate at non-robotic sortable facilities (5.7 per 100). 

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The Warehouse Worker Resource Center is a nonprofit, 501(c)(3) dedicated to improving working conditions in the warehouse industry in Southern California. We focus on education, advocacy and action to change poor working conditions in the largest hub of warehousing in the country.

What’s a quota? Everything you need to know if you’re working in a warehouse.

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Did you know that starting in January 2022 there is a new law in California that protects the health and safety of warehouse workers?

Here’s a simple quiz you can take to see if you are covered:

A) Do you work in a warehouse?

B) Are there a 100 or more employees?

C) If fewer than 100 people, does your company have 1,000 or more total warehouse employees in California?

D) Does your warehouse use work quotas, rates, or similar performance targets?

If you answered YES to these questions then you are covered. Here’s what that means:

As of Jan. 1, 2022, under California’s new law AB 701 your employer MUST:

  • Have provided existing employees a written description of every quota an employee is expected to meet 
  • Provide every newly hired employee with a written description of each quota they are expected to meet 

Your employer also CANNOT:

  • Discipline or terminate you for failing to meet a quota for which you were not provided a written description as described above.
  • Discipline or terminate you for failing to meet a quota requiring so much work or speed that it prevents you from taking meal or rest breaks, using the bathroom, or following CalOSHA safety laws. 

Do you have questions? 

If you never received a written description of your quota, contact us! Two ways:

  1. Call (951) 394-0236 (Español or English)
  2. Email: legal@warehouseworkers.org

More information:

For questions or to file a complaint for an AB 701 violation, you can also contact the California Labor Commissioner’s Office (https://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/districtoffices.htm). 

 

Disclaimer: This material is for general information only and is not legal advice. The law in individual circumstances may vary and you should consult an attorney for advice on your specific situation.

Warehouse Workers Are Changing the World

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Warehouse workers in the Inland Empire stand in solidarity with the workers at JFK8 in Staten Island who just formed the first-ever union at an Amazon facility.

Workers in New York showed that by working together we can win a voice on the job, better working conditions and stand up to major international corporations like Amazon. In Southern California we know all too well about wages that don’t keep up with the cost of living, dangerous working conditions and unsafe daily quotas.

We live and work in an area dominated by warehouses and we pay the price in the quality of our air and the quality of our jobs, but we are working to create a better future and lift the voices of workers and our community.

New York Amazon workers are an inspiration and a model for what is possible.

Statement on Passage of the Warehouse Worker Protection Act

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For Immediate Release: Sept. 22, 2021

Contact: Sheheryar Kaoosji, 213-453-8454 skaoosji@warehouseworkers.org

 

Statement from Sheheryar Kaoosji, Executive Director of the Warehouse Worker Resource Center, on the Passage of Assembly Bill 701

 

ONTARIO, Calif. — The Warehouse Worker Resource Center is excited that the legislature and Governor Gavin Newsom made the Warehouse Worker Protection Act, Assembly Bill 701 law. This bill is a groundbreaking and meaningful step toward a warehouse sector in California that is just and equitable.

Are you a warehouse worker? Find out if you are covered. 

As goods movement and warehousing become a dominant sector of California’s economy, we have seen conditions decline rather than improve. Employers like Amazon, now California’s largest private employer, have been driving conditions down with high and burdensome quotas for workers, leading to unacceptable injury rates and employee turnover that destabilize regions with large warehouse workforces like the Inland Empire and the Central Valley.

 

AB 701 will ban work performance rates that force workers into unsafe or uncompensated work; empower workers to take concerns over work rates to state enforcement agencies; and provide workers who speak up or ask about their work rates with retaliation protections. Such sensible measures will make the warehouse sector more sustainable and protect the hundreds of thousands of Californians who work in warehouses. 

 

Thanks to the leadership of Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez, the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, and our partners at Teamsters and other key unions and organizations, who stood with and will continue to fight for the rights of warehouse workers in California.

 

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About Warehouse Worker Resource Center

Warehouse Worker Resource Center (WWRC) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving working conditions in the warehouse industry in Southern California. WWRC assists workers dealing with issues of health and safety, wage theft and workers’ compensation when injured among other things. WWRC also serves as a community center for workers, family members and supporters interested in knowing their rights, joining with other workers to share experiences and learn from each other, and building a movement for workers’ rights in the Inland Empire and throughout Southern California.

WWRC Plays a Key Role in a Nearly $1.4M Wage Fine by Labor Commissioner

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About 100 La Mina de Oro employees experienced wage justice recently as the Labor Commissioner cited the Riverside perfume and fragrance wholesale distributor close to $1.4 million for wage-related violations. The two violations, issued February 2021 and May 2021, resulted from worker complaints stemming three years ago. Warehouse Worker Resource Center (WWRC), a nonprofit worker rights organization based in Ontario, played a pivotal role in the state’s decision to issue the citations as they helped La Mina de Oro staff understand their workplace legal rights and assisted in reporting violations.

“I am glad we have found some justice in this case,” says a former employee from La Mina del Oro, who wished to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation. “Unfortunately, many workers are scared to speak up or file complaints. I am happy for the lost wages we should receive, but even more so if this means that other workers don’t have to go through what we did.”

In early 2018, WWRC learned of potential wage and other violations at La Mina del Oro when several employees approached the organization for assistance with working conditions they believed were illegal. Because multiple workers at La Mina del Oro reported similar wage theft violations, an investigation by California was launched. After complaints were verified and La Mina del Oro’s operations analyzed, the Labor Commissioner issued citations totalling $1,393,907 for violations of minimum wage, overtime, meal and rest break, and itemized wage statement laws.

“We’re glad to have played a pivotal role in the Labor Commissioner’s citation and bring justice to La Mina de Oro workers,” says Sheheryar Kaoosji, Executive Director at WWRC. “Our organization’s mission is to take action against poor working conditions in warehouses and beyond. But to achieve this, employees must trust that we will advocate for them. We couldn’t have asked for a better outcome.”

The Public Health Crisis Hidden in Amazon Warehouses

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In a new report published today by Human Impact Partners (HIP) and Warehouse Worker Resource Center (WWRC), The Public Health Crisis Hidden in Amazon Warehouses details Amazon’s inhumane performance quotas and surveillance practices. As COVID-19 shelter in place orders surge Amazon usage, its workplace policies are triggering a California public health crisis impacting thousands of workers, their families, and our broader communities.

“I was injured during peak when they changed our schedule from four 10-hour shifts to five 12-hour shifts,” says Samantha, a worker from the Eastvale warehouse. A lot of us actually ended up getting injured because we weren’t used to the two extra hours and the whole extra 12-hour day.”

Amazon raked in nearly $100 billion in 2020, and warehouse workers and drivers paid the price. In HIP/WWRC’s research, 67% of all warehouse workers surveyed reported developing injuries at work. The majority of workers surveyed, 75%, say their required performance rate is either “always” or “often” too high to work at a safe pace. Additionally, more than 75% of those surveyed said they experience physical pain and/or injuries in efforts to “make rate.” Researchers also learned that Amazon’s quotas and monitoring systems have led to a range of musculoskeletal injuries at nearly twice the national rate of injury for warehouse workers.

Key findings highlighted in the report include:

  • Workers must take breaks within a 6-minute window, making restroom use, or hand washing, often impossible.
  • The organizational flow and structure of the workplace is causing work-related injuries such as back, wrist, and neck injuries.
  • Workers suffer from mental health issues due to the fear of contacting COVID-19 and/or being fired for not meeting work quotas.
  • A rise in COVID-19 outbreaks have been documented as pace of work has increased, compounded by a lack of COVID-19 precautions. But, the company has been slow to share outbreak information with its workers.

“I’m scared to go into work because of COVID-19,” says Mike, a Delivery Center worker from Hawthorne. “I have a disabled brother who is in a wheelchair, and he’s got a trach[eostomy]. If he catches it, it’ll kill him.”

The responsibilities of essential employees like Amazon warehouse workers and delivery drivers enable millions of Southern California residents to receive goods directly to their doorsteps. They deserve to work in an environment in which their health and safety is valued and protected.

To support public health and safety, the report lays out HIP and WWRC’s three recommendations for California policymakers and the California Department of Public Health:

  • Prohibit inhumane and hazardous production standards at Amazon and throughout the warehouse industry.
  • Implement stronger COVID-19 precautions at all Amazon warehouses and for subcontracted delivery drivers.
  • Ensure working conditions are within an ergonomic framework.

Read the full report by clicking The Public Health Crisis Hidden in Amazon Warehouses.  

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