The worker’s rights group Warehouse Life is going to court against the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration to obtain records relating to the deaths of three Amazon workers in New Jersey.
The group filed a federal lawsuit this week, asking a judge to force the U.S. Department of Labor and OSHA to fulfill public records requests for what they refer to as Amazon’s “notoriously hazardous warehouses.”
All three deaths took place over two months in 2022. One worker died July 13 at an Amazon fulfillment center in Carteret on Amazon Prime Day, which is known to be a grueling day for all workers trying to get the overflow of packages out of each factory. Another worker died July 24 after falling from a ladder at the Robbinsville warehouse. And the last died on Aug. 4 at a delivery facility in Monroe Township.
According to an OSHA inspection summary for the Carteret death, there was no evidence of wrongdoing by Amazon. “(The) employee was walking towards a 25lb plastic pallet when he collapsed suddenly due to a cardiac event. The employee killed by the cardiac event which was determined to be myocardial fibrosis unrelated to work,” the report read.
Yet Warehouse Life is seeking more information about the circumstances surrounding those deaths, including how the summer’s heat wave may have contributed. The lawsuit also seeks investigator’s notes, audio and video of inspections, as well as photographs and interview notes. The group says it filed its public records request since August.
New Jersey lawmakers introduced a bill in January which seeks to establish occupational heat stress standards that address the heat challenges many warehouse and outdoor workers face.
