Amazon accused of underreporting cases

A coalition of labor groups released a report calling on federal officials to investigate Amazon over allegedly underreporting cases of COVID-19 at its warehouses.

Despite admitting that almost 20,000 workers contracted the coronavirus in 2020, the report claims the e-commerce giant only reported 27 cases of “respiratory conditions” to federal regulators.

Calling for investigation: The Strategic Organizing Center, along with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Warehouse Workers Resource Center and the Awood Center, are also calling on the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to investigate that discrepancy.

“Amazon has failed to explain why it believes that out of the tens of thousands of its employees infected with COVID-19, virtually none of them were infected at work,” the organizations write in their complaint.

“This persistent pattern of apparent non-compliance would be alarming on its own at any employer — not to mention the second-largest private employer in the entire country,” the complaint continues. “However, these evident failures have also happened with little or no federal oversight.”

Pushback: Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel countered that the SOC’s analysis is “intentionally misleading to try and paint a false picture.”