OSHA investigates deaths of Amazon staff in New Jersey


Federal work-safety investigators are taking a look into the dying of an Amazon employee and an harm that doubtlessly ended in the dying of some other worker, including to a probe already underway following a 3rd fatality all over the corporate’s annual Prime Day buying groceries tournament in mid-July.

All 3 Amazon staff died throughout the previous month and had been hired at corporate amenities in New Jersey.

The new Occupational Health and Safety Administration investigations are hanging contemporary scrutiny on Amazon’s harm charges and workplace-safety procedures, that have lengthy been criticized via hard work and security advocates as insufficient.

Department of Labor spokesperson Denisha Braxton showed Thursday that the most-recent fatality came about ultimate week at an Amazon facility in Monroe Township, about 20 miles northeast of Trenton. The 2d probe is taking a look right into a July 24 coincidence at an Amazon facility in Robbinsville. The employee concerned with that coincidence died 3 days later, in line with Braxton.

In a remark, Robbinsville Police Chief Michael Polaski stated police answered to the warehouse, referred to as PNE5, on July 24 after receiving a file {that a} employee fell from a three-foot ladder and struck his head.

Polaski stated the employee used to be mindful and alert when police arrived. But police had been instructed CPR used to be performed at the individual via different staff previous to their arrival, he stated. The individual used to be transported to a medical institution and OSHA used to be notified of the incident at the identical day, he added.

Police in Monroe Township didn’t in an instant answer for a request for remark at the incident there.

The two most up-to-date deaths had been first reported via america Today Network.

OSHA officers declined to supply further details about any of the deaths, bringing up the open investigations. The company has as much as six month to finish each and every probe.

Sam Stephenson, a spokesperson for Seattle-based Amazon, stated in a remark the corporate used to be “deeply saddened via the passing of our colleagues and be offering our condolences to their friends and family.”

“Our investigations are ongoing and we’re cooperating with OSHA, which is carrying out its personal critiques of the occasions, because it frequently does in those scenarios,” Stephenson stated.

Last month, OSHA introduced some other investigation right into a employee fatality at an Amazon warehouse within the New Jersey the city of Carteret all over the corporate’s Prime Day buying groceries tournament, which became out to be the most important within the corporate’s historical past. Federal officers haven’t launched further information about the dying, however information studies have known the employee as 42-year-old Rafael Reynaldo Mota Frias.

A spokesperson for Amazon stated the corporate’s inner investigation into the Carteret dying displays it “used to be now not a work-related incident, and as a substitute used to be associated with a non-public clinical situation.”

“OSHA is these days investigating the incident, and, founded upon the proof these days to be had to us, we totally be expecting that it is going to succeed in the similar conclusion,” the spokesperson stated.

News of the deaths comes amid broader scrutiny into the corporate’s operations. In past due July, OSHA officers inspected Amazon amenities in New York, Illinois and Florida after receiving referrals alleging well being and security violations from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. The civil department of the U.S. lawyer’s place of business may be investigating security hazards at Amazon warehouses and “fraudulent habits designed to cover accidents from OSHA and others,” in line with a spokesperson for the place of business.

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