A worker sorts packages in an outbound terminal at an Amazon fulfillment center in Eastvale, California on Tuesday, August 31, 2021.
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New York state legislators on Friday passed a bill targeting AmazonThe use of productivity quotas in warehouses is the latest sign that state officials are targeting the online retailer’s labor practices.
The State Assembly passed the bill, known as Warehouse Workers Protection Act, after it was passed on Wednesday by the State Senate. It now heads to the desk of New York Governor Kathy Hochul, who has yet to say whether she will sign off on the measure.
The law requires Amazon and other companies that operate warehouses to provide workers with documentation of their production quotas and to notify them of any changes to their expectations. It also prohibits companies from imposing quotas that keep workers from eating, resting or taking bathroom breaks.
The bill was introduced two months after an Amazon warehouse in New York voted support joining a union, the first time that happened at one of the company’s US facilities. Workers at the warehouse, located on Staten Island, are being represented by the Amazon Labor Union (ALU), a grassroots group of current and former employees of the company.
New York is not the first state to take such action against Amazon and its peers over quotas. In September, California signed into law a similar bill. And earlier this year, legislators in Washington and New Hampshire introduced invoices that target warehouse production quotas.
Amazon relies on sophisticated algorithms to track productivity rates among its warehouse workers, recording the number of packages they pick, pack, and queue each hour. If an employee takes a long break from scanning packages, Amazon’s internal system records it as a “timed out task” and issues an alert, which can lead to behavior.
Amazon’s productivity quotas are a frequent target of worker advocacy groups and Amazon employees themselves, who argue that a relentless focus on speed leads to work injuries in warehouses. Much learn by the Center for Strategic Organization, a coalition of labor unions, attributed the high injury rates among warehouse and delivery workers to Amazon’s “obsession with speed”.
Workplace quotas are becoming increasingly common in warehouses as same-day and next-day deliveries become the norm, the bill states.
“Those quotas generally don’t allow workers to comply with safety guidelines or recover from strenuous activity during productive work hours, leaving warehouse and distribution center employees working under rights they are at high risk of injury and illness,” the law says.
Representatives from Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Amazon has previously said it has made safety a priority within the company, including introducing programs to educate employees on how to avoid workplace injuries. Amazon CEO also refused that the company uses production quotas in its warehouse.
It is a misconception that Amazon has quotas, said Heather MacDougall, Amazon’s head of workplace safety, at an event with the National Safety Council on Thursday. “We are committed to ensuring that operational safety and performance expectations can coexist.”
ALU is pushing for more reasonable quotas, along with better pay and benefits.
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