However, the law also prohibits requiring compliance with quotas that are unsafe or harm people’s physical integrity, such as not being able to take breaks to eat or replenish energy or use the bathroom.
The Labor Commissioner’s office noted that Amazon did not provide written information about the quotas, but the company defended itself by saying that it did not require them because a “peer evaluation system” is used in its warehouses.
However, Commissioner Lilia García-Brower said that precisely these types of systems are what the Warehouse Quotas law seeks to avoid, so the company’s defense is not very sustainable.
Amazon, with a history of labor abuse
This is not the first time that Amazon has faced fines for the conditions in which its warehouse and delivery employees work, as on other occasions regulators have focused on work rates, arguing that they are as high as they are dangerous.
In Washington, in 2022, the company was also fined for requiring employees to work at an excessively fast pace, something that exposed them to a greater risk of suffering injuries, sprains or blows during their tasks.
In addition to California, other states that have passed regulations to control Amazon’s working conditions are Washington, New York and Minnesota, while Amazon has claimed not to use quotas to measure the performance of its employees.
In his defense he also expressed that they announced investment plans of more than 750 million dollars in security initiatives for this year alone. Likewise, Maureen Lynch Vogel, company spokesperson, told various media that they will appeal the accusations.
“At Amazon, individual performance is evaluated over a long period of time, relative to the performance of the entire site team. Employees can (and are encouraged to) review their performance whenever they wish. They can always talk to a manager if they have trouble finding the information,” Lynch Vogel said.
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