Amazon’s ALB1 fulfillment center in Rensselaer County is facing new citations from federal regulators who say the company failed to provide medical treatment for traumatic and chronic injuries at the site.
An ongoing investigation by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration found at least six employees with head injuries and four with back injuries who did not receive timely, necessary medical care.
OSHA says the injured workers were returned to their jobs and that in many cases their injuries became worse as a result.
OSHA Assistant Secretary for Occupational Safety and Heatlh Doug Parker says the company has shown a “callous disregard for the well-being” of its employees at the Castleton warehouse. Amazon faces more than $15,000 in penalties in the latest round of citations.
The facility was also cited in February for ergonomic violations and in December for recordkeeping violations.
Earlier this year, OSHA cited Amazon’s facility in New Windsor. OSHA is says it has 20 open inspections at Amazon locations across the country.
The retailer has 15 days to contest the citations.
Amazon emailed a statement to WAMC in response. Amazon spokeswoman Maureen Lynch Vogel said:
“We take the safety and well-being of our employees extremely seriously, and the claims in this citation are just plain wrong so we plan to appeal. Our policy is to encourage anyone who wants or needs outside medical attention to get it immediately, and our on-site clinics are just for first aid – not formal medical diagnosis. Since 2019, we’ve invested more than $1 billion in safety initiatives and our publicly available data shows that our recordable injury rate and lost time incident rate have dropped by more than 23% and 53% respectively. We also know that there will always be more to do, and we’ll continue working to get better every day.”