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April 29, 2022 11:20 pm

New York Bill Would Force Amazon To Limit Grueling Warehouse Quotas

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: In the latest effort to challenge Amazon's grueling labor practices, a new bill, that was introduced on Friday, would require New York employers to disclose and place limits on productivity quotas for warehouse workers. The New York bill, known as the Warehouse Worker Protection Act, is an expanded version of a similar first-of-its-kind law that passed in California last year aimed at Amazon that regulates warehouse worker productivity quotas. The legislation is in part a response to skyrocketing injury rates in Amazon warehouses linked to productivity expectations. Recent data shows that workers in the e-commerce warehousing industry in New York experience serious work-related injuries at three times the average rate for private industry in the state, according to OSHA data. The New York bill would require employers with at least 50 employees in a single warehouse or 500 workers statewide to share a written description of productivity quotas, how the quotas are developed, and how they can be used for disciplinary purposes with each worker. It would also ensure that production quotas do not interfere with workers' basic rights such as bathroom breaks and rest periods or health and safety laws. [...] Amazon has provided little transparency into how productivity "rates" that are designed by algorithms are formulated, but said that it creates productivity targets for workers that are based on their experience and take into consideration health and safety. [...] The bill takes California's law a few steps further by requiring employers to develop and implement an injury reduction program with worker input that identifies and addresses job hazards, such as rapid pace and heavy lifting, that can cause musculoskeletal injuries. This includes a worksite evaluation by an ergonomics consultant and worker training on how to avoid injuries. "The Warehouse Worker Protection Act will give workers in this industry -- union or not -- the ability to demand that their health and bodily integrity is accounted for, and not sacrificed for profits they do not get to share in," said Jessica Ramos, the bill's author and a New York state senator from Queens. "As the senate labor chair, I see it as my responsibility to clear the path for any worker who needs to stand up to an abusive employer."

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