Amazon’s massive growth has also created thousands of jobs in it’s warehouses in Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey. Nationwide, the retail delivery giant added 500,000 workers in 2020 and sales soared to $386.1 billion. As of last year, Amazon employed 25,000 full- and part-time jobs in Pennsylvania; 49,000 in New Jersey; and 4,500 in Delaware, according to the company. The company has about 60 facilities in the region.
Workers in those warehouses have substantially higher rates of injuries than those in other warehousing operations in the area. Sometimes the injury rates are almost doubled, such as in Pennsylvania.
The Washington Post and Philadelphia Inquirer compiled data from the United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), showing that Amazon warehouse injury rates were the highest work injury rates in the states of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware in the three-year stretch of 2017-2020, and in some counties: including Bucks, Philadelphia and New Castle, Del., the injury rates at Amazon were more than double those of other companies’ warehouses. Specifically, in Pennsylvania, an average of 3.9 per 100 employees were hurt on the job in the warehousing industry sector in 2020, but Pennsylvania Amazon warehouses had 7.2 injuries per 100 full time employees in 2020 in the same year.
These alarming statistics are spurring concerns from union groups and employee rights organizations.
The Philadelphia Workers’ Compensation lawyers at McCann Dillon Jaffe & Lamb, LLC have more than five decades of combined experience fighting on behalf of injured workers. We will help make sure your employer pays what you are owed for being injured either at work or as a result of your job. Call us today at 215-515-7644 or contact us online for a free consultation. Located in Philadelphia, Media, and Abington, Pennsylvania; Wilmington Delaware, and Haddonfield, New Jersey, we serve clients throughout the surrounding areas, including Delaware County and Chester County.