As many as 294 injuries were reported in the financial year 2020/21 – up from 231 the year before, or an increase of 27% when compared to 139 reports in 2016/17. GMB says the true figure could be much higher, with not all local authorities having responded to the FOI survey.
Amazon sites with the most reported injuries over the last 5 years include Coalville (95), Dunfermline (93), and Manchester Sunbank Lane (87). Central Bedfordshire had the most reports of any local authority, with 135 of them being serious injuries.
Local authority inspection reports reveal multiple areas of concern, including injuries to workers, unsafe working conditions, Covid-19 concerns, and poor health and safety record-keeping or a lack of compliance with inspectors.
Separate new figures obtained by the union also show that more than a thousand ambulance callouts were also made over the same period – and that callouts rose by 56% during the pandemic (between 2019/20 and 2020/21).
Despite Amazon’s claim that “the vast majority of ambulance call-outs to our buildings are related to pre-existing conditions,” ambulance trusts reported multiple callouts for falls, traumatic injuries, and cases of Covid-19. At one ambulance trust in Yorkshire, specific traumatic injuries accounted for one in ten callouts.
GMB has called on Amazon to discuss with the union how to “work out how to make Amazon a great, safe place to work.”