Whereas hundreds of thousands of Amazon customers have been delighted by reductions for Prime Day 2024 on July 16 and 17, a U.S. Senate report alleges the occasion is a “main” explanation for accidents for Amazon warehouse employees, citing a yr’s price of knowledge observing working situations.
The information confirmed that, throughout main Amazon purchasing occasions together with Prime Day and the vacation season, warehouses are understaffed and Amazon didn’t hit its hiring targets for high-volume durations. The report additionally alleges that in Prime Day in 2019, there have been 10 accidents for each 100 employees, greater than double the business common for related occasions.
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“Amazon continues to deal with its employees as disposable and with full contempt for his or her security and wellbeing,” U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders mentioned within the report. “That’s unacceptable and that has obtained to alter.”
Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel informed CNBC that the report was not correct.
“It attracts sweeping and inaccurate conclusions based mostly on unverified anecdotes, and it misrepresents paperwork which can be a number of years outdated and contained factual errors and defective evaluation,” Nantel mentioned, per the outlet. “For instance, one of many false claims within the report implies that we’re not adequately staffed for busy purchasing durations.”
Newly launched information from Adobe Analytics discovered that July 16, the primary day of the Amazon Prime Day occasion, was the most important e-commerce day of 2024 thus far, with over $7 billion in income. The preliminary information marks an 11.7% enhance from the identical time final yr.
The excessive quantity, nevertheless, led to the corporate setting “unsustainable productiveness necessities and that critical accidents are widespread” throughout Prime Day, the probe mentioned, citing former and present employees. One worker alleged that employees had back-to-back twelve-hour shifts with lower than an eight-hour break in between.
“Prime Day and the vacation season are characterised by extraordinarily excessive quantity and intense stress to work lengthy hours and ignore security tips,” the probe states. “By way of its investigation, the Committee uncovered proof that Amazon fails to refer employees for out of doors medical care, which might have an effect on whether or not an harm is taken into account ‘recordable.'”
“This isn’t a suitable set of practices from one of many richest corporations on this planet,” the probe reads.
Amazon is coming off of a robust Q1 2024, with internet gross sales reaching $143.3 billion, a 13% enhance from the identical interval final yr.
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“It was begin to the yr throughout the enterprise, and you may see that in each our buyer expertise enhancements and monetary outcomes,” Andy Jassy, Amazon President and CEO mentioned in a launch, on the time.
Amazon was up almost 40% yr over yr as of Thursday morning.
