An Amazon warehouse in Logan Township, New Jersey, required employees to perform tasks leading to bodily stress that had caused or was likely to cause musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs), the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced August 3. OSHA cited Amazon for ergonomic hazards, proposing penalties totaling $15,625, and issued a Hazard Alert Letter regarding additional ergonomic hazards in the warehouse.
There is no federal ergonomics standard; the Clinton administration’s eleventh-hour ergonomics regulation was repealed under the Congressional Review Act in 2001. OSHA cites employers for ergonomics hazards using its authority under the General Duty Clause (§5(a)(1)) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act.
OSHA learned during its investigation of the Logan Township warehouse that Amazon failed to ensure injured employees received proper medical care for their workplace injuries. The agency issued a second Hazard Alert Letter for failure to ensure employees received medical treatment.
OSHA had similar concerns about Amazon facilities in Deltona, Florida, in January and Castleton, New York, in April.
Citations at the Logan Township warehouse marked the sixth time in 2023 that OSHA cited Amazon for violations at its warehouses. The agency this year has also cited violations at the Amazon warehouse facilities in Castleton and Deltona, as well as in Aurora and Colorado Springs, Colorado; Nampa, Idaho; Waukegan, Illinois; Bayonne, New Jersey; and New Windsor, New York.
“The work done by Amazon employees in the company’s fulfillment centers is physically demanding, which makes the availability of proper medical care extremely important,” Paula Dixon-Roderick, OSHA’s Marlton, New Jersey, area office director, said in an agency statement.
“Amazon needs to do more to protect the safety and health of its employees, including implementation of a companywide strategy to address well-known and preventable hazards.”
The Department of Labor has 18 open federal inspections at Amazon locations in the United States, according to the agency.
On July 13, OSHA launched a National Emphasis Program (NEP) of outreach and enforcement focused on warehouses, postal processing facilities, distribution centers, and high-risk retail establishments. The warehouse NEP is focused on ergonomics and heat hazards, as well as powered industrial vehicle operations, material handling and storage, walking and working surfaces, means of egress, and fire protection.
The injury and illness rates for the targeted workplaces are higher than in private industry overall and, in some sectors, more than twice the rate for private industry, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data cited by OSHA in its NEP directive.
Amazon and NSC
The National Safety Council (NSC) has been focused on researching and developing ergonomics interventions, awarding $285,000 in grants earlier this year to research offering potential solutions to reduce the instances of work-related MSDs.
Amazon is a corporate sponsor of the NSC’s MSD Solutions Lab, the council’s ergonomics research and development initiative. The MSD Solutions Lab has developed an “MSD Pledge” to address what the NSC has characterized as the most common workplace injury. The MSD Solutions Lab also developed an MSD Index to gauge an employer’s risk-reduction strategies and workplace safety culture. The council’s MSD Solutions Lab held a small business summit last fall to help employers of all sizes prevent MSDs.