Amazon’s Employee Health Program to Reduce Warehouse Disasters

Despite reports that Amazon imposes tough work quotas on warehouse employees and blatantly prevents the establishment of employee unions, it has launched a health promotion program called Working Well to keep employees healthy.

This program provides a place for well-being exercises for physical and mental activities and for staff stretching or meditation to support a healthy diet. Here, staff can watch short videos that calm the mind with guided meditations and a soothing soundtrack that maintains a positive mood with positive words.

According to the Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR), which investigates inequality in business activities, abuse and corruption, Amazon warehouses with many automated parts are reported to have a 50% higher incidence of injuries than general warehouses. In addition, it can be said that imposing a quota of 400 items per hour rather than 100 items per hour can easily lead to a disaster by causing a work error.

Surrounding the Amazon field work environment, for example, the number of deliveries handled by a delivery man was too large to stop in the bathroom, and there were reports of problems that inevitably urinated in plastic bottles. In addition, cases in which delivery workers are fired if they suffer from traffic accidents or fail to achieve difficult quotas, and even heavy work arrangements such as working 10 hours a day have been reported.

Meanwhile, Amazon argues that the push for automation will lead to a safer and more efficient work environment. It also raised employee salaries by $3 an hour and spent $300 million this year on safety projects. Therefore, the Working Well, which aims to reduce the rate of recordable accidents by 50% by 2025, will be expanded to all Amazon sites in the U.S. by the end of the year. Related information can be found here.