Inventory at a warehouse
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Federal security inspectors on Wednesday issued citations towards Amazon at three of its warehouses for placing employees susceptible to severe damage, the second such penalty in a month.
The Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration mentioned the e-retailer uncovered employees at warehouses in Aurora, Colorado; Nampa, Idaho; and Castleton, New York to unsafe circumstances and ergonomic hazards. The company made the willpower after reviewing on-site damage logs.
The transfer comes after OSHA final month cited Amazon for failing to maintain employees protected at three different services.
Amazon faces as much as $46,875 in proposed penalties for the violations introduced Wednesday.
“Amazon’s operating methods are creating hazardous work conditions and processes, leading to serious worker injuries,” mentioned Doug Parker, assistant secretary for Occupational Safety and Health, in an announcement. “They need to take these injuries seriously and implement a company-wide strategy to protect their employees from these well-known and preventable hazards.”
Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel mentioned the corporate disagrees with OSHA’s findings, saying they do not “reflect the reality of safety at our sites.”
The firm mentioned it has taken steps to mitigate accidents in its services via issues like job rotations, stretching, and engineering enhancements that cut back the necessity to twist, bend or attain. Amazon additionally pointed to robotics programs that it has deployed in some warehouses, which it claims can enhance security in some repetitive duties.
Amazon employees have been at excessive threat of decrease again accidents and different musculoskeletal problems as a result of frequency with which they lifted packages, dealt with heavy objects, labored lengthy hours and “awkwardly” twisted, bended and prolonged themselves to raise objects, the company mentioned.
OSHA inspected the services after it acquired referrals from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. OSHA and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in July opened an investigation into the three services. CNBC reported in August that the probe expanded to incorporate three different websites, close to Albany, New York, Denver, Colorado, and Boise, Idaho.
Amazon additionally faces a separate investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s civil division that facilities round employee security hazards on the e-retailer’s services nationwide. As a part of the probe, investigators are additionally wanting into whether or not Amazon has precisely reported employee accidents and if it misrepresented these accidents to lenders to acquire credit score.
OSHA cited Amazon in December for 14 recordkeeping violations and levied a proposed penalty of $29,008.
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Source: www.cnbc.com”