Amazon delivery injuries saw a skyrocketing rise in 2021, a recent report from Strategic Organizing Center (SOC) claims.
An employee places packed goods tons container at the distribution center of US online retail giant Amazon in Moenchengladbach, on December 17, 2019.
On the other hand, the giant online retailer says otherwise, boasting that accident rates have actually significantly collapsed, citing its safety measures.
Amazon Delivery Injuries Rise in 2021?
As per a news story by Engadget, a SOC study found out that there is an increasing cause of injuries among the third-party delivery workers of Amazon.
The data shows that the Amazon delivery injury rate drastically increased in 2021 when compared to its 2020 figures.
An Amazon.com Inc. delivery driver carries boxes into a van outside of a distribution facility on February 2, 2021 in Hawthorne, California.
The recent study further claims that one in five Amazon delivery third-party workers got injured last year. The SOC data also disclosed that injury rates skyrocketed roughly 40 percent between 2021 and 2020.
Amazon Delivery Injury Study
It is worth noting that SOC, according to a recent report by CNET is a collaboration of four labor unions.
Engadget adds that SOC includes unions like United Farmworkers of America, Service Employees International Union, Communications Workers of America, and Teamsters, which claims to represent around 4 million employees.
Aside from the alleged rising number of Amazon delivery rates, the study also pointed out that the quotas of the giant retailer to its workers are high.
The report says that DSP operators and lawsuits by DSP owners in the United States claim that "Amazon sets unmanageably high quotas for delivery drivers." CNET notes that DSPs are the small firms that provide delivery services to the tech giant.
The SOC study cited one of the lawsuits. It explicitly claimed that Amazon expects a delivery operator to ship around 350-400 parcels per van in just a single day.
And to make the target possible, the lawsuit says that the delivery worker needs to "park, sort, deliver, and document deliveries" for around 1 to 2 minutes for a 10-hour shift.
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Amazon's Response
However, the spokesperson of Amazon, Kelly Nantel, dispelled the claims of the study in her statement to Engadget.
Nantel states that the recent report "cherry-picks data from less than 10% of our delivery partners." That said, she adds that it tells both "an inaccurate and misleading story."
The Amazon spokesperson also claimed that the giant retailer prioritizes safety in its delivery network.
To be more precise, the spokesperson boasted that the tech firm uses various tech to lower its injury rates, such as camera systems.
Nantel also claimed contrasting accident rate figures with the recent report, saying that it has already gone down by half.
An Amazon.com Inc. delivery driver carries boxes into a van outside of a distribution facility on February 2, 2021 in Hawthorne, California.
"We'll keep investing in new safety tools and try and get better every day," the spokesperson assures.
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