On Prime Day, A Troubling New Report Shows The Darker Side Of Online Retail

The growing speed at which we receive our online orders may come at a serious cost to workers’ bodies, according to the Government Accountability Office.

A new report from the congressional watchdog found that serious injury rates in warehousing and parcel delivery grew “significantly faster” than the rate across industries between 2018 and 2022. The authors defined a “serious injury” as one that resulted in time away from work or modified job duties.

Unsurprisingly, the biggest hazards these workers faced were musculoskeletal injuries and strains from overexertion and repetitive motions.

The GAO also said that employers’ real-time monitoring of workers’ productivity rates in warehouses and delivery vans might be a contributing factor. That is, companies may be pushing workers too hard with the threat of punishment or firing ― a finding that would not shock workers who’ve felt pressure to “ make rate ” as they pick, pack and ship items.

“Employers’ use of technology that increases productivity may harm workers through encouraging worker overexertion and unsafe movements,” the report states.

The GAO, which is an independent and nonpartisan agency that reports to Congress, carried out the report at the request of Virginia Rep. Bobby Scott, the ranking Democrat on the House committee covering labor issues.

These are the kinds of serious injuries that can leave workers disabled and in chronic pain. Virginia Rep. Bobby Scott

Although the report did not name particular employers, its release on Tuesday coincided with Amazon Prime Day. Scott said in a statement that the findings show the workers “who keep the American economy moving” are getting hurt far too often.

“These are the kinds of serious injuries that can leave workers disabled and in chronic pain,” Scott said.

The GAO notes that work in the logistics industry has exploded amid the shift from brick-and-mortar toward online retail, as companies now try to fill small individual orders and get them to customers within a couple of days. Employment grew by 60% in warehousing and 41% in delivery work over just five years.

Over that same period, the serious injury rate rose by 20% in warehousing and 23% in delivery, the GAO found in its analysis of Occupational Safety and Health Administration data. Yet in “general industry” — all industries excluding agriculture, construction and maritime — the serious injury rate only climbed by 6%.

The OSHA data is based upon injuries that employers report to the agency. Occupational experts assume that injuries in general are more frequent than the data suggests, since many go unreported. Employers are often reluctant to tell OSHA about an incident because they fear more scrutiny from regulators or higher workers’ compensation premiums.

The GAO surveyed workers as part of its investigation and found many of them didn’t tell their employers about their injuries, either because they didn’t believe they were serious enough, they didn’t believe their employers would do anything about it, or they worried they would be retaliated against.

While the report acknowledged new technologies could help prevent injuries, the surveys found many workers believe such advancements are changing their jobs for the worse.

Overwhelming majorities of both warehouse workers and delivery drivers said their employers’ monitoring technologies, such as the handheld scanners they scan packages with, are making it harder for them to do their jobs safely.

“One warehouse worker said that the rate at which their employer expects employees to work is extremely stressful,” the report noted. “Physically stressful because the pace of work wears their body down and mentally stressful because they fear getting fired.”