Amazon’s fulfillment center in Nampa was inspected for safety violations. What we know

Amazon’s big fulfillment center in Nampa is among six of the company’s warehouses across the country under investigation by federal authorities over worker safety concerns.

The warehouse opened at 5295 E. Franklin Road in late 2020, when Amazon said it would hire up to 2,000 workers to staff it. The site was inspected by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in early August, according to an Amazon spokesperson.

Citations have already been issued for the company’s warehouses in Deltona, Florida; Waukegan, Illinois; and New Windsor, New York, and are expected to be issued this week for three additional warehouses that were previously inspected, including the one in Nampa, and ones in Aurora, Colorado, and Castleton-on-Hudson, New York, according to Jane Chung, a spokesperson for the Athena Coalition, an organization that advocates for workers’ rights.

Several of the allegations outlined in OSHA documents stem from the Castleton-on-Hudson center, where Amazon was accused of not filling out forms nearly a dozen times after workers were hurt, according to reporting by McClatchy News.

“OSHA issued Amazon citations for 14 record-keeping violations, including failing to record injuries and illnesses, misclassifying injuries and illnesses, not recording injuries and illnesses within the required time, and not providing OSHA with timely injury and illness records,” the U.S. Department of Labor wrote in a Dec. 16 news release. The department includes OSHA.

The Miami Herald reported Jan. 21 that OSHA proposed a fine of $60,269 for Amazon after discovering injury lists at three warehouses put workers at “high risk for lower back injuries and musculoskelatal disorders.”

In a statement emailed to the Statesman on Tuesday, Amazon said the federal government doesn’t have any specific ergonomics guidance for employers to follow, but the company is taking action to address workplace injuries, which it notes are common among all industries.

“We take the safety and health of our employees very seriously, and we strongly disagree with these allegations and intend to appeal,” Kelly Nantel, an Amazon spokesperson, said in the statement. “We’ve cooperated fully, and the government’s allegations don’t reflect the reality of safety at our sites.”

Debbie Berkowitz, former chief of staff and senior policy adviser at OSHA, spoke at a press briefing hosted by the Athena Coalition on Tuesday about the alleged violations against the company.

She said Amazon’s high injury rates stand out in the already dangerous warehouse industry. She said the citations issued against the company are unprecedented.

“What’s most significant and historic about the citations is the amount of resources and expertise that OSHA devoted to these three inspections so far and three more that will be coming out in the future,” Berkowitz said. “OSHA is a small agency, and so it’s very rare for them to do this.”

Sheheryar Kaoosji, the executive director of the Warehouse Worker Resource Center, said employees at Amazon warehouses across the country have been sounding the alarm about health and safety hazards for years. He called for the government to place increased scrutiny on the company’s operations.

“What really matters is that workers are organizing,” Kaoosji said. “Those workers understand that these hazards that they deal with, these injuries that they and their colleagues face every day, are not acceptable.”

Calls to OSHA’s Idaho state director, David Kearns, were not returned.

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