Amazon warehouse workers suffer injuries, burnout, and illness

Most Amazon’s employees in the United States (U.S.) have suffered injuries, burnout and illness at fast-paced warehouses, according to the new survey by the University of Illinois Chicago’s Center for Urban Economic Development (CUED).

The new survey showed that half of Amazon’s employees in the U.S. have reported sustaining injuries at Amazon warehouses. Some Amazon warehouse workers said that they had to take unpaid time off from their jobs to recover from their injuries and illness.

CUED report said that 41% of the Amazon workers were physically hurt on the job. Of those Amazon employees, 69% of the workers said that they had to take unpaid time off to recover from pain or exhaustion.

Injuries and burnout at work

Beth Gutelius, research director at CUED and a co-author of the study, said that Amazon warehouse workers suffered injuries, burnout and exhaustion because of the rapid pace of work at Amazon warehouses.

The survey, which was taken between April and August of 2023, highlighted the plight of Amazon workers. The survey was conducted on more than 1,400 current Amazon workers across 451 facilities in 42 states in the United States. Amazon workers talked about workplace’s health and safety protocols.

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The company uses an electronic system to track employees’ productivity and how much time they take to complete their duties. Workers feel pressure to complete their work on time, leading to injuries and burnout at workplaces. They suffer injuries or experience burnout because of this policy.

Last year, there were 6.6 serious injuries for every 100 Amazon workers. Amazon reported 39,000 total injuries at its United States facilities in 2022, up from 38,300 total injuries in 2021.

Amazon jobs involved “repetitive motions, lifting, carrying, twisting, and other physical work” at warehouses. 

In 2021, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos pledged to make the company “Earth’s Best Employer.” 

Earlier this month, Amazon also started trialing humanoid robots in its United States warehouses in order to boost its operations. Workers said that they may lose jobs as Amazon bought robots into warehouses. The move sparked fears among employees about the effect on its workforce of almost 1.5 million humans. The workers said that they do not want to lose their jobs. However, Tye Brady, the chief technologist at Amazon Robotics, said that the deployment of robots would create new jobs.