Amazon’s Injury-Plagued Warehouse Operation Goes on Trial
Hearings in Washington state starting in late July will usher in a period of broader government scrutiny of the e-commerce giant.
Amazon’s BFI4 fulfillment center in Kent, Washington, where state inspectors strapped ergonomic monitors to workers.
Photographer: Chona Kasinger/BloombergIn December 2021 a doctor and an occupational health expert entered Amazon.com Inc.’s mammoth BF14 fulfillment center in Kent, Washington, about 20 miles south of the company’s Seattle headquarters. They were there at the behest of state regulators to investigate why workers at the world’s largest online retailer are injured more often than their counterparts in warehouses that other companies run.
Echoing Amazon’s penchant for tracking employees’ every move, the investigators used electronic monitors and video cameras to measure the stooping, lifting, reaching and twisting required to pick, pack and ship products to customers across the US. Over three days they observed more than 50 employees performing 12 tasks, including unloading trucks stacked floor-to-ceiling with boxes weighing as much as 50 pounds, packing customer items in envelopes and moving around pallets of products on rolling jacks.