Amazon was fined $5.9 million for failing to provide written work quotas to employees at two warehouses in Southern California, an escalation in regulatory penalties imposed on the online retailer in the wake of a new law that took effect in 2022.
The California Department of Industrial Relations issued two citations in May, alleging Amazon violated the state’s warehouse quota law. It requires companies to give workers written notice of productivity quotas — the number of tasks per hour required to avoid being disciplined. The state agency said Amazon failed to do this for employees at facilities in Moreno Valley and Redlands between October and March.
The Seattle-based company is fending off federal and state regulators for a variety of allegations regarding working conditions in its warehouses. The U.S. government doesn’t regulate workplace quotas used to encourage employees to move quickly, so some states have been enacting their own laws on that issue specifically targeting warehouses.
Amazon, through a spokesperson, said it has appealed the fines.
Lawmakers in Washington state passed a regulations similar to California’s last year that are set to go in effect in July. Washington’s law applies to companies that employ 100 workers or more at a single warehouse, or 1,000 workers or more at multiple warehouses in the state.
In Washington, safety regulators determined Amazon’s fast pace was, in fact, putting workers at risk. In an inspection of Amazon’s facility in DuPont, regulators found a “direct connection” between the incidence of injuries at the warehouse and Amazon’s expectation that employees “maintain a very high pace of work.”
Since then, Washington’s Department of Labor and Industries has issued several citations against Amazon facilities in the state. Amazon has appealed those citations.
This story was originally published at bloomberg.com. Read it here.
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