Leaked Amazon data shows automated warehouses have higher injury rates

Since 2014, Amazon has touted the efficiency and safety benefits of its new automated fulfillment centers where robots assist human workers in processing packages. But it turns out automation may be doing far more harm to the company's employees than Amazon has led the public and lawmakers to believe. In a new report, the Center for Investigative Reporting's Reveal publication found that between 2016 and 2019, the rate at which Amazon employees sustained serious injuries was 50 percent higher at warehouses where the company has robots that at ones where it does not. Those facilities have among the highest rates of employee injuries of any of Amazon's warehouses. Last year, for instance, a fulfillment center south of Amazon's Seattle headquarters called BFI3 had a rate of 22 serious injuries for every 100 workers.