Amazon's Troubles Mount As Workers' Rights Advocates Slam Its Scheme For Injured Workers

Amazon.com Inc's AMZN plans to send injured U.S. warehouse staff to non-profit groups, like homeless shelters, kitchens, and charity shops, sparked criticism from workers' rights advocates, the Financial Times reports.
There were 34,001 serious injuries at U.S. Amazon facilities in 2021, up 36% year-on-year.
Amazon prioritized containing its serious injury rate after Amazon's warehouses attracted regulatory attention and heightened unionization efforts.
Also Read: Amazon's Unionization Would Hit Its Profitability, Morgan Stanley Says
Amazon's program encompassing 250 locations in 33 U.S. states, enables Amazon to send injured employees on "light duty" and remain on full pay.
The program also allows Amazon to salvage its Lost Time Incident Rate (LTIR), highlighting the number of more severe incidents at its facilities.
A 2019 Amazon memo outlined how finding more alternative light-duty roles for those injured had "the potential to reduce Lost Time Injuries and workers' compensation costs by 70 percent."
Workers' rights groups and lawyers representing injured workers alleged the light-duty roles of manipulating statistics to make it appear fewer severe injuries were occurring at Amazon.
Amazon argued that the voluntary program helped employees get back to work more quickly and retain their full salary.
Amazon has placed over 10,000 workers at non-profits since Amazon Community Together launched in June 2016, FT notes.
Amazon recently set out an "aggressive geographic and use case expansion" for the program that reflected its plan to create an automated in-house system to match hurt workers with appropriate external positions.
Price Action: AMZN shares closed lower by 0.50% at $3,064.45 on Wednesday.

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