An Amazon employee died at a New Jersey warehouse during a Prime Day rush last week, according to the Labor Department.
The unidentified male worker died at Amazon’s EWR9 facility in Carteret, New Jersey, during Amazon’s Prime Day sale, which traditionally marks one of the online retailer’s busiest weeks of the year.
Labor Department spokesman Lenny Forston told The Post that the agency’s Department of Employee Safety, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, “is aware of this tragic incident” and is “currently investigating.”
Forston said the agency has six months to conduct the inspection and release its findings. The agency did not provide any additional details about how the worker died.
“We are deeply saddened by the passing of one of our associates and extend our condolences to his family and friends during this difficult time,” Amazon spokesman Sam Stephenson said. “We have reached out to his family to provide support and will provide counseling resources to staff in need of additional care.”
Amazon’s critics, including organizers who unionized the JFK8 warehouse in Staten Island this April, say the company’s emphasis on speed puts workers at unnecessary risk.
According to a labor union report based on OSHA data, in 2021, nearly half of all warehouse worker injuries occurred at Amazon facilities — even though the e-commerce giant accounts for only a third of all warehouse jobs in the US.
According to the report, the injury rate at Amazon facilities rose 20% between 2020 and 2021, despite Jeff Bezos’ pledge to address the issue.
Amazon attributed the increase in injuries to the wave of new employees and said its injury rate declined by 13% between 2019 and 2021.
