The health and safety record at Amazon’s Dunfermline centre has been labelled “appalling” by union GMB Scotland.
GMB Scotland secretary, Gary Smith, declared that the company was treating its staff like robots and not humans after figures of the health and safety incidents at Amazon were released under Freedom of Information legislation.
The figures revealed there had been 75 serious incidents in the workplace reported to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) since 2015, including broken bones, strains, sprains, bruises, cuts and a concussion and/or an internal head injury. The number of total accidents may be much higher as only major injuries are required to be reported.
This is not a stand-alone case for Amazon as it was revealed in October that workers in the Dundee depot were forced to work in temperatures below 3 Celsius.
Freedom of Information legislation has shown that over 440 serious health and safety incidents have been reported from Amazon warehouses to HSE since 2015.
Despite the figures, Amazon has defended their employees working conditions. An Amazon spokesperson stated:
“According to the UK government’s Health and Safety Executive RIDDOR, Amazon has 43% fewer injuries on average than other transportation and warehousing companies in the UK.
“Safety is one of the reasons LinkedIn recently ranked Amazon number 7 on its UK Top Companies list. We encourage you to compare our pay, benefits, and working conditions to others and come see for yourself on one of the public tours we offer every day at our centres across the UK.”
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