Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos encouraged a deep dive into musculoskeletal conditions, which account for about 40% of work-related accidents across the industry and impact millions of people worldwide across industries, in his final letter to shareholders. It’s also associated with factory employment and sites like factories. From the latest labour fight in an Alabama factory to the conditions for Amazon’s critical workforce during the pandemic, the company’s care of its employees has become a high-profile problem. In recent years, it has been blamed for a high rate of occupational accidents, though the firm has also stated that it records more workplace casualties than its rivals, due to a more positive safety culture.
“You may think we don’t care for staff if you read any of the news reports,” Bezos wrote in his letter, which was posted earlier this month. “Our workers are often accused of being desperate souls and treated like robots in such papers. That isn’t correct. They’re sophisticated, thoughtful individuals with a variety of employment options.” They do, though, suffer from MSDs as a result of repetitive tasks that are akin to those performed by robots. According to many experts interviewed by CNBC, Bezos’ prolonged remarks about this occupational accident amounted to one of the first statements by a major company, to bring wider attention to the subject. According to estimates, MSDs cost the U.S. businesses more than $50 billion a year and resulting in between 21 and 32 days off work on average between 1997 and 2010, and in addition to Amazon warehouse work, MSD problems in beef production and poultry plants have recently attracted scrutiny.
MSDs, also known as “ergonomics accidents,” are sprains and strains induced by repeated movements, overexertion, or work execution in inconvenient locations, and include conditions such as carpal tunnel syndrome and tendonitis. Retail sales, construction, and social welfare workers accounted for half of all MSD cases in the private sector, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. They are popular in factory-line workplaces and among new employees, but they may also occur in sports, desk work, and daily use.
“MSDs are normal in the form of work that we do, and they are most likely to occur within an employee’s first six months,” Bezos wrote, noting that the organisation introduced a programme to train small groups of workers on body mechanics and safety, which resulted in a 32 percent reduction in accidents between 2019 and 2020. In the latest letter, Bezos stated that the time apart as a result of the injury had “decreased by more than half.” “We need to come up with new ways to eliminate MSDs for new hires, many of whom might be employed in a physically demanding position for the first time.” CNBC asked Amazon for more details about its current MSD activities, but Amazon refused to comment.
According to John Dony, senior director of the National Safety Council, one of the most significant problems with MSDs is that there is no clear explanation why they occur, and they can occur unexpectedly from seemingly innocuous tasks such as walking up a flight of stairs. There isn’t any study into how they happen, whether they happen, or who is most vulnerable. Younger employees often choose to “tough it out” or do not understand the risks, according to Dony. While older workers often suffer from wear and tear MSDs.
According to Andrew N. Pollak, senior vice president for clinical transformation and chief of orthopaedics at the University of Maryland Medical System, some reports indicate obesity, biology, or smoking can raise the likelihood of MSDs, although the evidence on causal associations is unclear. This study receives very little public support, but big firms like Amazon, which now hires over a million people, can better gather data, so they can share with other businesses. Pollak explains every “that kind of study has been impossible to do in smaller organizations because you just don’t have the same number of employees working the same work as you do at a major behemoth like Amazon.”
