Amazon has reached a settlement with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) over working conditions at the e-commerce giant's facilities, the Department of Labor announced Thursday.
The settlement agreement resolves a lawsuit brought by worker safety watchdogs against Amazon over ergonomic hazards that could lead to lower back injuries and other musculoskeletal conditions. It calls for measures to be taken to protect workers from the conditions.
“This company-wide settlement agreement focuses on improving conditions for hundreds of thousands of Amazon employees across the country,” Douglas Parker, assistant secretary for Occupational Safety and Health, said in a statement.
“The ball is in the company's court,” he added. “OSHA stands ready to work with the ergonomics team to evaluate progress and validate our commitment to OSHA.”
Amazon faces 10 lawsuits scheduled to go to trial early next year before the Occupational Safety and Health Review Board, according to the Labor Department.
As part of the settlement agreement, OSHA rejected nine citations and Amazon accepted one, Amazon spokeswoman Maureen Lynch Vogel said.
“At sites that accept the citations, we will be making several changes to the process paths through which employees handle televisions,” Lynch Vogel said in a statement.
“Other than that, this settlement does not require network-wide engineering controls. Rather, OSHA directs Amazon to continue implementing existing processes and procedures to reduce ergonomic risks.” ” she added.
The settlement comes after Amazon workers in the Teamsters union went on strike in five states ahead of the Christmas holiday on Thursday over Amazon's refusal to come to the negotiating table. It was realized. Amazon maintains that its employees are not employees.
