The Occupational Safety and Health Administration and Amazon have reached a corporate-wide settlement to help better protect workers from dangerous working conditions that can cause serious lower back and other musculoskeletal disorders at Amazon facilities, the U.S. Department of Labor announced today. In the first significant multi-site investigation OSHA has conducted in more than ten years, the settlement agreement settles the department’s several ergonomics claims against Amazon.com Services LLC.
Ten cases involving inspections of ten Amazon locations starting in the summer of 2022 were set to trial before the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission between January and June 2025.
“This corporate-wide settlement agreement focuses on improving conditions for several hundred thousand Amazon workers nationwide,” said Assistant Secretary for Occupational Safety and Health Douglas L. Parker. “The agreement requires Amazon to assess ergonomic risk across its facilities, including through annual updates, and investigate and implement controls to reduce ergonomic risk. The ball is in the company’s court. OSHA stands ready to work with their ergonomics team to evaluate their progress and verify the commitments they made to OSHA.”
“Corporate-wide settlements can be a critical tool to protect workers from health and safety violations because they protect the most workers and can incentivize companies to solve underlying problems. This settlement requires Amazon to take action at the corporate level to ensure corporate-wide ergonomic requirements are effectively implemented at its warehouses nationwide,” said Solicitor of Labor Seema Nanda. “The Solicitor’s Office supports agreements requiring employers to demonstrate their commitment to solving complex problems and work with OSHA to improve their processes. Amazon must do so under this agreement, and the department can enforce it in court should the company fail to meet its commitments.” The Solicitor’s Office, led by the New York regional office, had been engaged in active litigation against Amazon in these cases for nearly two years.
According to the agreement, Amazon must take corporate action to guarantee that ergonomic standards are successfully applied at all of its facilities. Among other facilities under federal OSHA’s jurisdiction, the agreement will cover all of Amazon’s fulfillment centers, sortation centers, and delivery stations. It also includes an alternative dispute resolution procedure designed to promptly address and resolve ergonomic hazards brought to the attention of Amazon employees. The sitting OSHRC judge decided last year that OSHA may pursue the complaint, which sought countrywide relief.
Additionally, Amazon’s ergonomic safety actions for facilities cited by OSHA for ergonomic hazards in 2023 are memorialized in the agreement. If Amazon violates the terms of the corporate-wide ergonomics plan or otherwise, OSHA maintains the right to perform an on-site inspection and enforce it under the OSH Act, or if OSHA determines that other controls are practical and likely to lower ergonomic risks.
The parties will meet every two years to examine aspects of Amazon’s corporate ergonomic program, the progress of pilot projects and controls aimed at addressing ergonomic hazards, and leading and lagging indicator data, such as trends in MSD injuries. Additionally, Amazon will pay a $145,000 penalty, which is more than 90% of the total amount that OSHA determined was due to the ergonomics penalties.
The agreement also contains the following commitments:
- The corporate ergonomics team must conduct ergonomic risk assessments, identify and pilot engineering controls, provide ergonomic support and expertise to local sites, and have a designated Site Ergonomics Lead. SELs must review the corporate’s ergonomic risk assessments and prepare their own site-level ergonomic risk assessments. These must be updated annually or sooner if a change occurs that increases ergonomic risk. SELs must also investigate and implement feasible site-specific controls. Amazon must ensure that SELs, site-level safety and health staff, and site employees receive ergonomic training.
- Amazon must offer and maintain multiple methods for employees to communicate with Amazon regarding ergonomic concerns and potential solutions, including methods that permit employees to submit concerns anonymously if desired.
- Amazon must also evaluate the effectiveness of its corporate-wide ergo program by tracking sites’ compliance with it, including analyzing training requirements, SEL assignments, and site ergonomic risk assessments.
- The agreement authorizes OSHA to conduct monitoring inspections at the locations where OSHA cited hazards, including access to documents and witnesses relevant to Amazon’s implementation of its ergonomics program.
The agreement also lists the ergonomic safety measures that Amazon has put in place at several local locations, such as job rotation, a new sorting system, new conveyors, ergonomic matting, scanner harnesses, updated Go Carts, adjustable height workstations, and a redesign of packing stations. Although either side may attempt to end the agreement after the first year, it is for a two-year term.
This agreement does not impact the ongoing investigation by the U.S. Attorney of the Southern District of New York concerning, among other things, whether Amazon is engaged in a fraudulent scheme to hide its true injury rates and worker safety hazards at Amazon warehouses around the country.
The U.S. Attorney of the Southern District of New York is currently investigating whether Amazon is involved in a fraudulent plan to conceal its actual accident rates and worker safety dangers at Amazon warehouses around the nation, among other things. This agreement has no bearing on that investigation.
