Almost one in five Amazon delivery workers were injured during 2021, a study Tuesday said. The study was published by the Strategic Organizing Center, a coalition of four labor unions representing more than 4 million workers.
Using data that Amazon and its delivery contractors submitted to the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration in 2020 and 2021, the SOC found that workers delivering packages for Amazon delivery service partners were injured at a rate of 18.3 per 100 workers last year, up almost 40% from 2020. The small businesses that deliver packages for Amazon are known as DSPs.
“According to DSP operators and to lawsuits lodged by DSP owners across the US, Amazon sets unmanageably high quotas for delivery drivers,” the SOC’s study said. “Claims in one lawsuit state that during peak times, Amazon expected a DSP operator in Sacramento to deliver 350-400 packages per day per van. To complete this number of deliveries in a 10-hour shift, drivers would need to park, sort, deliver and document a delivery approximately once every 1 to 2 minutes.”
