California’s Fine Against Amazon: What We Know

California has slapped Amazon with a nearly $6 million fine for labor violations, claiming that the digital retail giant has wholly mistreated its employees in two facilities east of Los Angeles.

CNBC is reporting that the company violated the state’s Warehouse Quotas law, which “covers employers who directly or indirectly control 100 or more employees at a single warehouse distribution center or 1,000 or more,” per the California Department of Labor. The law, which went into effect in 2022, requires all employers to furnish productivity quotas to employees and government agencies, as well as clearly outline the repercussions for employees who fail to meet these quotas.

The law also requires mandated breaks, including for meals and bathroom breaks, and prohibits employers from enacting unsafe quotas.

After looking into two Amazon locations in Moreno Valley and Redlands, the California Labor Commissioner’s Office reported that it had discovered 59,017 infractions of the state’s Warehouse Quotas legislation.

But there’s more to this latest violation by the digital giant than meets the eye.

Amazon Labor Violation Fines: Not the First Time

This is just the latest issue faced by Amazon for labor violations. In 2023, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) levied citations against warehouses in three different states for safety violations.

“Amazon’s operating methods are creating hazardous work conditions and processes, leading to serious worker injuries,” said Assistant Secretary for Occupational Safety and Health Doug Parker in a statement issued about the fines at the time. “They need to take these injuries seriously and implement a company-wide strategy to protect their employees from these well-known and preventable hazards.”

Workers were frequently subjected to hazardous working conditions that the federal agency claimed subjected them to “a high risk of low back injuries and other musculoskeletal disorders.” The workers were subjected to lifting heavy objects with extreme frequency over a period of long hours, with employees “awkwardly twisting, bending and extending themselves to lift items.”

Each warehouse was hit with a fine of nearly $50,000.

Amazon claimed that it would appeal the new allegations, and in March it noted that the company’s injury rates have improved. The digital giant also said that it would be introducing more regulations to protect workers in the coming months.

“At Amazon, individual performance is evaluated over a long period of time, in relation to how the entire site’s team is performing. Employees can — and are encouraged to — review their performance whenever they wish. They can always talk to a manager if they’re having trouble finding the information,” said Maureen Lynch Vogel, an Amazon spokesperson, in a statement to CNBC.

Workers, however, aren’t trusting Amazon to have their best interests in mind. That’s why many, especially in New York, have unionized, and the union movement is gaining momentum across the country.

Unions Are the Future of the Company

Amazon workers across the country have made clear that they will continue to organize into unions to protect themselves and their co-workers. Despite a hard fight put up by the digital giant, warehouse workers in Staten Island secured a unionization victory that the company has failed to overturn.

Galvanized by this victory and the latest fine levied by the state of California, New York City warehouse workers who are part of the Amazon Labor Union have announced that they’re joining forces with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters as an autonomous union with the same rights and duties as a standard Teamster chapter. This union, according to the Associated Press, is now organizing for contracts for all workers.

“Together, with hard work, courage, and conviction, the Teamsters and ALU will fight fearlessly to ensure Amazon workers secure the good jobs and safe working conditions they deserve in a union contract,” Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien said in a statement about the new contract.