Suppose you know someone who has suffered from a workplace injury and filed a workers’ compensation claim. If so, you probably know that the complicated process can add insult to injury. In other words, it can be a difficult journey.
An employer and employee have different perspectives, which means there are at least two versions of what may have happened, why it happened, and who is at fault.
E-commerce giant Amazon is one such company that has recently found itself at the center of a workers’ comp and workplace injury storm. One way it is defending itself (in part) is by claiming a declining injury rate. According to Amazon, the self-reported, on-the-job injury rate fell 9% between 2021 and 2022. And across worldwide operations, which amounts to approximately 1.5 million people, the rate dropped nearly 24% between 2019 and 2022.
Recent data shows that the injury rate for Amazon workers in 2022 was 6.9 for every 100 workers. But, unfortunately, that didn’t prevent OSHA from citing the online retail behemoth for “failing to keep workers safe.”
According to OSHA’s Dough Parker, Amazon has a history of injury rates exceeding other warehouse industry players. Two thousand twenty-one data shows Amazon was one-and-a-half times higher than the industry average. Further, at some Amazon warehouse sites, nearly 12 out of 100 workers experienced an injury.
In response to those particularly high-incidence sites, Parker said, “That’s more than 10% of the workforce every year who are receiving injuries on the job that are serious enough that they have to take time away from their jobs. We know it’s affecting thousands of workers, which is alarming.”
What the Workers Say
The anecdotes are coming fast and furiously since news of Amazon’s stats broke. One involves an employee named Bobby Gosvener. Though no longer employed by the retail giant, Gosvener worked at a Tulsa, Oklahoma warehouse until 2020, when a conveyor belt malfunction left him with a herniated disk that required surgery to correct. Since then, Gosvenor has been on permanent partial disability. He begrudgingly orders items through Amazon occasionally, citing the convenience factor as hard to deny. However, he says that whenever he sees an Amazon box, he thinks of what employees may have gone through while getting it out of the warehouse.
Another injured Amazon employee, Jennifer Crane, hurt her wrist last year while on the job but continues to work. The torn ligament she suffered from the repetitive nature of packing the same product into the box after box all day long now requires that she wear a brace on her arm. She also relies on pain meds to help her through. But as a single mom of two boys, she’s got to work.
“I’ve got to be able to support them. I have bills to pay,” Crane said. Crane is also involved in the fight to improve working conditions at Amazon by passing around a petition in her warehouse requesting a slowed pace on the line, more breaks, and improvements to ergonomic factors, among other things.
Enter Third-Party Data
The Strategic Organizing Center (SOC), comprised of labor unions, analyzed OSHA’s recent data and determined that Amazon’s workplace injury rate was “more than double that of all non-Amazon warehouses in 2022. Additionally, SOC’s report said that while Amazon employs 36% of U.S. warehouse workers, 53% of all severe injuries were reported from Amazon facilities.
Last summer, federal authorities inspected seven Amazon sites across five states. As a result, all seven locations received citations. Amazon is appealing all of the citations, but if they are upheld, the company will be required to pay its first-ever federal fines for workers who have suffered musculoskeletal injuries. That amounts to approximately $152,000, plus $81,000 in Department of Justice fines.
Compared to Amazon’s revenue of $500 billion last year, the fines will likely have minimal impact on the retailer’s processes or bottom line.
What’s the Answer?
Securing a highly competent workplace injury attorney is a no-brainer for employees hurt in any industry. Unfortunately, it isn’t just global corporations that fiercely fight workplace injury lawsuits; the pain is relative, and many employers will try to get claims denied. Getting an experienced workers’ compensation lawyer on your side as soon as possible can make all the difference.
Eason & Tambornini offers free, no-obligation consultations. If we agree to take your case, you wait to pay until we win. Call our Sacramento workers‘ compensation attorneys today and find out where you stand.
