In the latest legal challenge to Amazon's labor practices, Washington state lawmakers are poised to introduce legislation targeting above-industry-average injury rates at the company's warehouses.
The bill would make Washington the second state to attempt to force Amazon to change how it manages its fulfillment centers. California last year passed a law that supporters say could give Amazon workers and other warehouse staff new power to push back on grueling speed quotas, requirements that workers scan or pack a certain number of items per hour.
The pressure Amazon places on workers to move faster when scanning merchandise, packing boxes, and performing other tasks contribute to above-industry-average injury rates, Washington state regulators found last year after inspecting a warehouse in DuPont, WA. That facility is the most dangerous large Amazon warehouse in the country, state inspectors found, with a 2020 injury rate nearly six times the national average for the warehousing sector.
Nationwide, Amazon warehouse workers are injured nearly twice as often as other warehouse-sector workers, according to a Washington Post review of federal workplace safety data.
Amazon did not respond to a request for comment. The company has previously said it tailors speed targets to individual workers, and that those targets take health and safety into account.
The precise details of the Washington state legislation are still under discussion, said Aaron Wasser, a spokesperson for the state senate's Democratic caucus. According to State Senator Karen Keiser, the bill will likely resemble California's new law, which requires warehouse employers to disclose productivity quotas to workers and regulators, and gives workers the power to sue to eliminate quotas that prevent them from taking breaks or following safety procedures.
Lawmakers are also discussing provisions that would affirm workplace safety regulators' rights to inspect facilities with high injury rates, Keiser added. Washington state officials said last month that Amazon has been attempting to obstruct their efforts to inspect warehouses.
