Amazon responds to Bernie Sanders’ misleading workplace safety report

At Amazon, our employees’ safety is and always will be our top priority—it comes before everything else we do. While we respect Senator Sanders and his work chairing the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), the interim report issued today is wrong on the facts, and it uses a small selection of outdated data, unverified anecdotes, and incorrect analysis to build a misleading narrative. We know that some individuals and groups may want to twist the facts to advance their own agendas, but we think it’s important to share the truth. Here are the actual facts.

Our safety record. First and foremost, we’ve made, and continue to make, significant progress on safety across our network. And unlike most companies, we provide a public report each year with our safety data. Our most recent report shows that, from 2019-2023, we reduced our recordable incident rate (which includes anything that requires more than basic first aid) in the U.S. by 28%, and we reduced our lost time incident rate (which only includes more significant injuries that require an employee to miss at least one day of work) by 75%. And contrary to the narrative in this report, these large safety gains occurred alongside surging demand and record-breaking volumes in several Prime Day events and holiday seasons. According to the latest industry data available, we’re now better than the transportation industry average and in line with the warehousing industry average. This improvement is the result of both innovation and investment—so while the report accuses us of not spending enough on safety, it also ignores our actual spend. The truth is we’ve allocated $750 million for safety improvements in 2024 alone, and this is in addition to the $1 billion we spent between 2019 and 2023, and the $15 billion we spent to mitigate the risks of COVID-19. While we’re encouraged by the progress we’ve made, we aren’t satisfied and will continue to invest and invent to be the best and safest workplace in the industries in which we operate.

The false allegation we encourage employees to not report injuries. There’s no truth to the notion that Amazon discourages employees from reporting injuries or seeking outside treatment. In fact, it’s the opposite—we encourage employees to report potential injuries early and often, and we’ve created tools and resources to make it easy for them. We have multiple options for employees to report injuries, and also near-misses and incidents that may not have resulted in an injury. As mentioned previously, these include using resources on their smart phones or at kiosks throughout each site, or by going directly to their leaders. And while the report accuses us of failing to record injuries, a recent OSHA investigation found the opposite—the minor issues OSHA says it found were all one-off clerical errors. Notably, OSHA did not allege these errors were intentional, willful, or systemic. And none of those alleged errors would have materially changed our injury rates. As for our onsite AMCARE clinics, those are intended to provide first aid if any employee needs it. If an employee needs care beyond first aid or wants outside medical treatment, they are always empowered to seek it.

False accusations about “total injury rate”. The report’s assertions about Amazon’s 2019 “total injury rate” are among the most obvious misstatements in the report and are based on a fundamental misunderstanding or misrepresentation of how injuries are documented and recorded. First, there’s no government-tracked metric called the “total injury rate”—the government tracks recordable injuries, which are anything that require more than basic first aid. The graph included in the report shows a “total injury rate,” which is something that an internal team at Amazon created to track any instance of an employee needing something like a Band-Aid, for example. Second, the suggestion that “total injury rate” includes serious injuries not reflected in our “recordable injury rate” is false. For any injury requiring more than first aid, we record and report it. Third, OSHA requires employers to provide easy access to things like Band-Aids—and we do. But OSHA does not require that this be reported. We’ve reported our recordable injuries accurately and transparently.

The report’s misleading use of old, outdated numbers. The report uses outdated information and a draft document to draw outlandish conclusions. The report points to injury data from 2019 and 2020 to make assertions about our current workplace, but those figures are outdated, do not reflect current practices, and were affected by an unprecedented global pandemic. The report also uses these numbers despite the fact that our more recent data is readily available from OSHA and our publicly issued safety reports, which shows significant improvements over the last four years. We explained all of these shortcomings during the investigation but the report chooses to rely on the outdated data anyway, which we can assume is because Senator Sanders and his staff had a pre-conceived narrative and not a hunger for the actual truth.

Staffing during busy shopping periods. There’s no truth to the notion that our sites are under-staffed during periods like Prime Day and Peak. In fact, each year, we hire thousands of seasonal employees to help us deliver for customers safely during busy times. And if customer demand significantly increases, orders are automatically routed to sites that can handle the volume. This report also twists the facts about scheduled overtime during busy times of the year, but that’s a common practice across the retail industry. Our goal is to provide two weeks of notice when scheduled overtime is necessary. In addition, it’s odd that the report mentions the potential risks in our 2023 annual report to support their false allegation about staffing in our facilities. It’s a standard requirement for every company to outline potential risks to their business in annual 10-K filings submitted to the SEC. That’s what we did in 2023. That section of the 10-K describes potential risks—not actual challenges that we’re encountering.

The report’s use of unverified anecdotes. Even with a workforce the size of ours, when allegations of injuries or safety violations are brought to our attention, we work to quickly and thoroughly investigate them so that we can address them. Anonymous and unverified anecdotes like the ones in the report make it difficult for us to determine the details, and whether the claims are true or accurate. We offer multiple mechanisms for employees to share their feedback, including all-team meetings and one-on-one discussions to engage with leaders, raise issues, and suggest improvements. For example, we have an ethics line for anonymously reporting issues that’s open 24/7. We have boards in every building where employees can write questions or feedback (anonymously or not) and get responses from their managers. As part of our commitment to safety, accountability, and transparency, these boards are located in common and break areas throughout each site, so all employees can see each of the questions and answers at any time. We also have a program called Dragonfly, which allows employees to report potential hazards, near-misses, or incidents, and raise safety suggestions. In 2023, we actioned on more than 200,000 pieces of feedback collected via Dragonfly. And those are just a few examples. We also know that—with a workforce the size of ours (over 1.1MM globally)—not everyone will have the same experiences. But we work hard to support our team, listen to their feedback, and keep getting better every day—and individual anecdotes in reports like this rarely reflect the experience of the vast majority. If you want to learn more, we encourage you to visit one of our sites, meet some members of our team, and decide for yourself.

We’ve worked diligently for many months to share facts and information with Chairman Sanders and his committee. We shared thousands of pages of information and documents throughout this process. As part of the investigation, we opened our doors to staff to tour two of our facilities. Additionally, one of our chief ergonomists sat down with Chairman Sanders’ staff and discussed several of our safety initiatives in great detail over a several hour session. When the Chairman’s staff had questions about the materials we provided, we worked to answer them or put them in context—including explaining to them why the conclusions they were drawing were inaccurate. But despite all of that, this report contains a number of misleading claims.

We’re grateful to our 1.1 million frontline employees and 9,000 health and safety professionals around the world who work hard every day to ensure a safe, comfortable, and inclusive working environment. And while we’re proud of the progress we’ve made, we’re also not satisfied—we’ll continue to invest in safety for years to come as we work toward being the very best in the industries in which we operate.

Read Amazon’s response to Senator Bernie Sanders’ misleading 'interim report' on workplace safety