Amazon warehouses where there are more robots are also those where there are more accidents at work? And is the accident rate much higher than in other companies in the same industry? The day after publication of the investigation of the Center for Investigative Journalism on the Reveal website, relaunched by some of the most followed newspapers and TV channels in the world, Jeff Bezos’ company responds with something more than the generic note delivered to Reveal in which he stated that “worker safety is in first place “. That note came, says Reveal, after Amazon received an interview request on August 19, followed by 35 detailed questions on September 9. The answer now comes globally and also in Italy since our post yesterday ended with the request to publish the Italian data on accidents at work (the Reveal investigation relates to 150 US warehouses).
The first part of the answer is common and is related to dismantling the two accusations. The Italian note sent to Repubblica argues, “that the author has interpreted the data incorrectly. The internal documents that he claims to have obtained, ultimately, highlight only one element: that we pay high attention to the safety of our employees “. According to Amazon, “Reveal’s reporter turns out to be misinformed about how the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) safety indicator measures days of absence and limitations due to health conditions (known as the DART rate) and that the author of the article wrongly defines as a serious accident rate. Our DART rate actually demonstrates how we encourage anyone who has suffered any type of injury (and not just serious ones), such as a mild fatigue or a sprain, to abstain from work until his condition improves “.
In short, and here we quote the summary of the site The Verge, “the high injury rates are due to the generous recovery time” granted to workers. The Reveal director in turn replied by explaining that in the investigation there is no confusion in calculating the injury rate and that the choice of translating the acronym DART (Days Away Restricted or Transferred) as “serious accidents” was made for clarity; and that the US Bureau of Labor Statistics itself argues that the DART can be used to calculate the rate of serious accidents.
The other point highlighted by the Reveal investigation is the coincidence between a high rate of accidents at work and the presence of robots. On this point, Amazon Italia wrote to us that “our metrics show how the safety data in our robotic sites are in line with those of the” old “generation. But he did not give us the metrics saying that internal numbers are not significant if not compared to a national figure. Even in the note sent to the English language sites, Amazon does not give numbers to deny the investigation but merely says that “there are continuous improvements in working conditions, in the prevention and reduction of accidents”. According to Reveal, these are only insignificant pilot projects apart from the rotation of workers from one workstation to another during the work shift, a practice that would have been suspended in 2019 on the occasion of the Prime Week promotion week.
Finally, the issue of security conditions in warehouses in Italy. Amazon tells Repubblica: “In order to guarantee our employees a safe working environment, we continue to invest in training, procedures, process design and equipment. In 2019, our investments in specific projects to improve safety conditions and in new equipment exceeded 2.8 million euros and we have provided employees with over 81,000 hours of safety training. Also in Italy, we employ over 30 safety professionals and 300 first aid workers who work to safeguard employees and identify new solutions to make their working environment safer. The numbers also easily highlight the positive impact our measures have on the safety of working conditions. The accident rate in Amazon fulfillment centers in Italy in 2019 was of 11.02 compared to the value of 50 in the logistics sector (Source INAIL – National Institute for Insurance one against accidents at work). The frequency index of accidents at work measures the incidence of accidents at work per million hours in a given period, sector and geographical area, compared to the number of hours worked in the same period, sector and geographical area, multiplied by a million. It takes into account only accidents lasting more than three consecutive days. In our injury metric we also take into account injuries that last only one day. The incidence rate of 11.02 was calculated by extrapolating the data relating to injuries that exceed three consecutive days in order to compare them with national data “.
–
