ORLANDO, Fla. – The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating reports of potential workplace hazards at Amazon warehouses in New York City, Chicago and Orlando, officials said Monday.
OSHA said it received a referral from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York about possible safety and health violations at the three facilities, prompting the inspections.
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According to Nicholas Biase, a spokesman with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the investigations are to check whether Amazon is keeping in accordance with federal workplace mandates.
“This morning, the United States Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration entered Amazon warehouses outside New York City, Chicago and Orlando to conduct workplace safety inspections in response to referrals received from the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York concerning potential workplace hazards related, among other things, to Amazon’s required pace of work for its warehouse employees,” Biase said. “The Civil Division of the SDNY is investigating potential worker safety hazards at Amazon warehouses across the country, as well as possible fraudulent conduct designed to hide injuries from OSHA and others.”
OSHA told News 6 that the agency is unable to provide more information because the investigations are still active.
A spokeswoman from Amazon reached out to News 6, saying the company is cooperating with OSHA’s investigation and believes the results of the inspections will show the concerns are unfounded.
Members of the public and Amazon warehouse workers with information about potential workplace safety violations or injury-related issues at these warehouses are urged to share that information with SDNY at the district’s website.
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