Amazon hit with fine over 'willful' safety violations at Kent warehouse

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Washington state regulators have fined Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN) for a "willful serious violation" of safety rules at an area fulfillment center.

Productivity expectations were set so high at the company's flagship BFI4 warehouse in Kent that ergonomists from the Department of Labor and Industries said 10 of the 12 processes they evaluated "create a serious hazard for work-related back, shoulder, wrist, and knee injuries," the agency said in a news release.

L&I hit Amazon with a $60,000 fine and is requiring the tech giant to submit a written plan to abate future violations. Another Amazon warehouse in DuPont received a $7,000 fine from the agency in May 2021 for failing to “provide employees with a workplace free from recognized hazards that are causing or (are) likely to cause serious injury,” according to the citation.

Seattle-based Amazon said it strongly disagrees with the citation and plans to appeal it.

https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2022/03/21/amazon-washington-regulators-kent-warehouse-fine.html

[Shipwack]

1. Sixty thousand dollars? Pffft. That's couch change to Amazon.

The European Union fined Amazon $865 -million- dollars (€746 million) for violating their data protection laws... This amount was based on a percentage (up to 4%) of Amazon's global sales.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-10-15/amazon-fights-record-865-million-eu-data-protection-fine

It's way past time to take the kid gloves off when dealing with corporations and give fines that cost more than they save by breaking the law.

(edited to add link and correct spelling)

[GP6971]

2. And $7,000 for the DuPont center???

They'll probably lay off one employee to cover the cost.