warehouse in New York State, Keith Williams’ hands and wrist stopped working – when he woke up the next day, he could barely grasp a milk jug.
“Workers deserve consistent, reliable standards that ensure basic safety, dignity and respect in the workplace,” he said. “This is intrusive micromanagement from the federal government,” Marc Freedman, vice president of workplace policy at the chamber, said in an interview. Amazon said only a very small number of workers were let go because of performance issues, and that workers were free to discuss expectations with their managers.
“There’s no pause button. There’s no stopping. You have to keep making the rate,” said Nanette Plascencia, a worker and labour organiser at the ONT8 warehouse in Moreno Valley, one of the facilities cited by California regulators.Amazon said it had made progress in bringing down its injury rates and that workers could check their performance at kiosks in their facilities.“This isn’t how performance expectations work at Amazon.
In June, Minnesota’s Department of Labor and Industry fined Amazon over citations for not providing a written copy of a quota to workers in the state and for not protecting them from ergonomics hazards. Amazon has contested the citations. The California Labor Commissioner’s office said it had created a list of warehouses that had more than 1.5 times the average injury rate for the sector, and conducted nearly 100 site visits.