(Bloomberg) — Amazon.com Inc. warehouses near New York City, Chicago and Orlando were inspected by federal investigators Monday of as part of a probe into potential worker safety hazards.
Investigators from the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration visited the sites on referrals from federal prosecutors in Manhattan, said Nicholas Biase, a spokesman for US Attorney Damian Williams.
Amazon for years has been accused of pushing workers to their physical limits, using quotas and firing those that don’t meet them. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos last year pledged to make the company the world’s safest place to work when he handed the role of chief executive officer to Andy Jassy.
Prosecutors had asked members of the public as well as current and former Amazon workers to report workplace safety and injury-related issues at warehouses. Prosecutors also sought information on the company’s failure to report injuries or failing to provide adequate care to workers who hurt themselves, Biase said.
“We’ll of course cooperate with OSHA in their investigation, and we believe it will ultimately show that these concerns are unfounded,” Kelly Nantel, an Amazon spokeswoman, said in a statement.
The inspections were previously reported by ABC News.
(Updates with Amazon response)
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