Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., introduced new legislation Thursday to regulate the use of productivity quotas by warehouse employers, such as AmazonCritics say the tool encourages workers to work faster and take less frequent breaks, putting them at a higher risk of injury.
The bill, called the Warehouse Worker Protection Act, is the first attempt to regulate warehouse quotas at the federal level after states such as California, New York, Washington and Minnesota passed similar laws.
The legislation would require employers to be more transparent about workplace quotas and potential disciplinary consequences, and to provide workers with at least two working days’ notice of any changes to quotas or workplace monitoring.
It also seeks to ban the company from using “harmful quotas” such as “vacation tasks,” a metric Amazon often uses to measure the time employees are not scanning items while on the job. Employees believe the leave policy makes working conditions more difficult and that it is used as a tool to spy on workers.
“Amazon has perfected a punitive quota system that forces workers to reach and exceed their physical limits,” Markey, a member of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee’s Employment and Workplace Safety Subcommittee, said in a news release. Announcing the bill.
“They set requirements on the number of packages workers must scan, but don’t tell workers what those requirements are. Then they fire workers who fail to win this impossible game,” Markey added.
Amazon’s use of quotas in its warehouses and delivery operations has been the subject of frequent debate, as well as broader scrutiny of the safety of its frontline workers. The company, the second-largest private employer in the United States, has previously said it does not use fixed quotas but instead relies on “performance expectations” that consider a variety of metrics, such as how certain teams at a location are performing. There has also been controversy over allegations that employees have insufficient rest breaks.
However, some Amazon warehouse workers say the company’s productivity quotas are opaque and often determined by algorithms, and they face disciplinary action or firing for failing to meet those quotas. Last year, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined Amazon for exposing workers to safety hazards, citing the pace of its work as a driving factor.
OSHA and the U.S. Attorney’s Office are investigating conditions at several warehouses, while the U.S. Department of Justice is investigating whether Amazon underreported injuries. Amazon said it disagreed with the Justice Department and OSHA charges.
Wendy Taylor, a packer at an Amazon warehouse in Missouri, said at Markey’s Thursday press conference that she and others are “fighting for transparency on quotas.” Taylor said she tripped over a pallet and fell face first in March last year, but was ordered back to work by on-site paramedics. Her doctors later discovered that her meniscus had been torn in the fall.
Taylor blamed the injuries on Amazon’s “inhumane work rates,” adding, “Amazon workers provide same-day delivery, but we don’t even get the same-day care we deserve.”
watch: Amazon’s worker safety concerns come under heavy criticism from regulators, Justice Department
About The Author
