Dozens of Amazon employees in UK endure severe accidents, sparking anger from unions

Unlock Editor’s Digest totally free

Roula Khalaf, editor-in-chief of the FT, selects her favourite tales on this weekly e-newsletter.

Dozens of Amazon employees within the UK have suffered severe accidents in recent times, together with going blind or requiring amputations, in response to new knowledge that results in contemporary requires the e-commerce large to it improves the therapy of susceptible employees.

The $2.4 trillion Huge Tech group and its related entities reported 119 severe office accidents to the nationwide office well being and security regulator between 2019 and 2024, in response to a response to a British freedom of data request submitted by the Monetary Occasions.

Figures reveal that Amazon employees suffered 106 bone fractures, misplaced consciousness eight occasions, had at the least three fingers amputated and misplaced two eyes.

The roles of these injured included warehouse and sorting employees, supply drivers, apprentice engineers and a security coordinator.

The corporate, which employs round 75,000 folks within the UK, seems to have had an estimated common price of non-fatal office accidents of 1,890 per 100,000 employees in 2023/24, in response to Well being and Security Government of the UK. .

Founder Jeff Bezos pledged in 2021 that the corporate would “grow to be the world’s greatest employer and the world’s most secure place to work.”

Nevertheless, union leaders have repeatedly expressed issues about Amazon’s security report. Stuart Richards, a lead organizer of the GMB, who tried earlier this yr to drive the group to recognize a union in the UK for the first timementioned the brand new damage knowledge “unveiled a severe catalog of issues.”

Richards added that it was “time for Amazon bosses to take the well being and security of their workers significantly.”

Amazon mentioned that utilizing figures supplied by the HSE “to counsel that our office is unsafe is totally inaccurate – the reality is the alternative”. He added that in 2022 the corporate had “50% fewer accidents than the remainder of the transportation and warehousing trade” when its damage charges have been in comparison with nationwide knowledge.

Harm knowledge launched within the FT’s freedom of data request reveals the speed of great accidents throughout its community was at its lowest stage in six years, whereas the variety of its workers greater than doubled in throughout the identical interval, Amazon mentioned.

Nevertheless, the figures for 2024 don’t cowl all the yr, such because the Christmas vacation interval, which is among the many busiest buying and selling intervals.

“We’re pleased with our work setting and encourage everybody to go to considered one of our places and see for themselves the secure and trendy office we provide,” Amazon added.

Employers and different folks liable for work premises are required to report what are often known as “specified accidents” because of accidents at work to the HSE. The employment statuses of these with reported accidents included workers, self-employed, and people employed by others.

Amazon additionally reported 5 occupational sickness diagnoses throughout the identical interval, together with tendonitis, dermatitis, and an sickness brought on by occupational publicity to organic brokers. However the Seattle-based firm has not reported any office accident deaths prior to now six years within the UK, the HSE mentioned.

Martha Darkish, co-executive director of Foxglove, a know-how marketing campaign group, mentioned some employees at Amazon’s UK operations have been “severely injured”.

She added that “proof from the USA has proven that the tempo of labor Amazon calls for of its employees – notably in robotic warehouses – is a serious contributor to office accidents and requires employees to work quicker than is secure.”

Amazon mentioned “robotics helps scale back accidents” as a result of it reduces the necessity for workers to carry out repetitive or strenuous duties, with the corporate allocating $750 million this yr to enhance office security. work. “Security is a essential space the place robotics makes a big distinction,” he provides.

The GMB’s Richards additionally mentioned he was “involved that official statistics solely inform a part of the story” because the union had heard of circumstances the place accidents and accidents have been “not handled appropriately” and the place employees have been “despatched dwelling in cabs moderately than cabs.” be despatched to hospital by ambulance.”

Amazon responded: “Be below no phantasm, we are going to at all times name an ambulance when colleagues want one in an emergency, whether or not it’s a work-related incident or not. Sure, taxis have been used to take employees dwelling or to hospital, however certainly that’s the proper factor to do?

The HSE mentioned in an announcement that “nearly all of work-related incidents at Amazon warehouses happen in achievement facilities, that are regulated by native authorities” and that the regulator “will take motion” if finds violations of the regulation on well being and security within the office. fall inside its software.

Knowledge visualization by Jana Tauschinski