Tag: Worker

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Health

Relentless Amazon has new plan to chop employee accidents by 50%

Relentless Amazon has new plan to cut worker injuries by 50%

The working conditions in the Amazon warehouse and the injuries suffered by workers were a constant source of tension between the corporate giant and its critics. A new safety and wellness program will be rolled out at all US locations by the end of the year as Jeff Bezos’ company continues to add large numbers of new employees.

CHRIS J RATCLIFFE | AFP | Getty Images

Amazon is known for its relentless nature. Can this corporate approach, which has led to so much success, be successfully applied to workplace injury prevention? Amazon employees and the world are figuring out what could be the greatest experiment in safety culture in the workplace that has ever been conducted.

Amazon announced on Monday that WorkingWell, a program that provides physical, mental, and nutritional support to employees, will be rolled out across the U.S. operations network by the end of the year to reduce the frequency of reportable incidents – an OSHA measurement of injuries and Workers’ illnesses – by 50% by 2025. The company, which has faced criticism of working conditions due to its size and increased customer demand, is investing $ 300 million in safety projects this year without breaking the program specifically as part of that budget.

WorkingWell is not entirely new to Amazon employees, nor is it planned to reduce the injury rate. It was first piloted in 2019 and has already reached a large number of workers, 859,000 employees in 350 locations in North America and Europe. In Amazon’s latest earnings report, released in late April, the company said it was expanding the program, although it didn’t provide all the details. A company executive said never having offered all program components in all locations and hopes to reach 1,000 locations by the end of 2021 and then expand to Europe (where pilot locations exist) and beyond.

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“We want them to be healthy, safe and interested in Amazon and proud to work for them,” said Heather MacDougall, vice president, global health and safety at Amazon. Employee health and wellbeing “is not just a topic of conversation,” she said.

Amazon is adding new employees at a breakneck pace. The youngest employees include 75,000 workers in the United States and Canada. The retail, logistics, and tech giant hired large numbers of workers during Covid, more than 500,000 in 2020, and a common type of injury known as musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) – which was discussed by Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon , recently wrote extensively in an annual letter to shareholders – is associated with new employees.

About 40% of work-related injuries on Amazon are MSDs, including sprains or strains caused by repetitive motion. Bezos noted in the letter that the program helped reduce injuries caused by MSD by 32% from 2019 to 2020. Highlighting the problem of workers and work culture, Bezos wrote, “If you read some of the news you might think we don’t have any.” Care for the employees. ”

According to John Dony, Senior Director at the National Safety Council, MSD risk exposure can and should be measured and reduced. “Just as coaches are now preventing pitchers from throwing too many pitches in baseball and addressing their risk of injury from mechanics, employers can also help prevent MSDs in the workplace by systematically measuring exposure to MSD risk factors and by systematically measuring exposure to MSD risk factors and assessing workplace and health problems Redesign work items to limit them. ” Exposure to these risk factors, “said Dony.

Body, Mind, and Wellbeing of an Amazon Worker

Program elements that will be added in all US locations include daily meetings for operations managers and small groups of employees near workplaces so they can watch short interactive videos on topics such as grasping and manipulating, pushing and pulling, and feeding. Amazon calls them “Health & Safety Huddles”.

Experts say there isn’t a lot of data on video training, but when skilled on-site professionals teach staff positioning to avoid injuries and spot checks on the floor, it has been shown to work and it has become more popular for warehouse operations to employ coaches in recent years.

Among the more than 6,000 security employees at Amazon are certified sports trainers, so-called injury prevention specialists, who usually work in separate wellness centers, but also in buildings that offer individual coaching with employees and ergonomic adjustments to the workstation, a spokeswoman said by email.

Hourly prompts at workplaces encourage employees to engage in physical and mental activities that should not last longer than 30 to 60 seconds. However, the company says it can decrease muscle and mental fatigue and reduce the risk of injury. Experts say stretching is key to injury prevention, although most popular workplace programs that are successful run sessions of at least five minutes several times per shift.

Amazon will have dedicated spa areas in buildings dedicated to activities like volunteer stretching and interactive videos. Other aspects of the WorkingWell program include videos on mindfulness practices such as meditation, which will be available at interactive kiosks, as well as promoting healthier eating options and making them available to employees.

“We made hundreds of changes based on employee feedback,” said MacDougall of the new program, which will include a WorkingWell mobile app that is currently being developed to provide access to home wellness education and training.

Some Amazon ideas aren’t new, but the scale is new

Occupational safety experts say many of the elements of the new Amazon program are common features of workplace culture where safety is a priority. In many ways, it is the sheer size of the effort that is striking and can provide scientists and professionals with a new source of data on workplace injury prevention.

“I don’t know of any company with so many people doing this type of work at the same time,” said Deborah Roy, president of the American Society of Safety Professionals. “Just by the sheer numbers, there is a good chance that we can learn from their implementation if they collect data well and do comparisons in a controlled manner. … But we need to see the data published.”

Amazon said it was working with universities on research into workplace safety, including understanding the mechanisms behind MSD injuries, and it was working with health and safety experts, but an Amazon spokeswoman turned down formal plans for sharing of research to work out even though she said so is something the company is contemplating for the future.

I am not aware of any company with so many workers doing this type of work at once.

Deborah Roy, President of the American Society of Safety Professionals

New employees who are not conditioned to do their jobs may be the most susceptible to MSDs. However, as the largest tenant in the US, Amazon also faces the problem of an aging workforce that needs to be kept healthy in a tight and shrinking job market. “They want to take the time and spend the money upfront on new employees, get them to do the job right, and help them position themselves better,” said Roy, but added that existing, older employees ” If you do not.” If you don’t support this workforce, you won’t have new young people to take their place. We just don’t have volume in many parts of the country. “

Some of the technology-driven injury prevention ideas Bezos outlined in the letter, such as: B. Algorithms that allow employees to rotate through jobs continued to be used in a pilot phase, but are not part of this program.

Claims that Amazon has a high rate of work-related accidents have continued over the years, especially during times of high demand like the upcoming Prime Day. Amazon has also fought in the court system to keep some infringement records confidential. The company also recently faced a union formation vote at an Alabama site, in which union officials said injuries were a factor in helping their efforts.

A reduction in accidents at work by 50% is possible

Jeffrey Ku, an operations manager from Amazon provided to CNBC who has piloted several aspects of the program at one of its Denver facilities, “DEN2,” said he had no injury in the six months he was in his team was responsible for training.

“50% is doable,” said Roy. “There have been many organizations that have been able to do this. It is a focus and must be a value in this company.”

While it may seem like a high bar, according to OSHA’s own published studies, companies with the right safety management system should be able to reduce injury rates by 52%.

Roy saw the change firsthand and oversaw an inventory program that increased the operations of 12 out of 100 injured manual laborers to zero injuries over a two-year period. “It is to their advantage to address these issues,” she said. “The support of these people contributes to business results and productivity.”

Having offered “a lot of training for new hires,” Ku has found the short videos and even the shortest pauses to reset helpful. “I’m very adamant about safety, security, security,” he said.

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World News

Uber grants U.Ok. drivers employee standing after dropping main labor battle

Uber grants U.K. drivers worker status after losing major labor battle

A smartphone displaying the Uber app in London.

Oli Scarff | Getty Images

Shortly after losing a major labor dispute in the UK, Uber will classify all UK based drivers as workers.

Under the new designation, more than 70,000 drivers will receive some benefits, including minimum wage, vacation time and pension contributions, but will not receive full employee benefits.

Uber announced the change to an SEC filing, adding that UK ridesharing accounted for 6.4% of all gross bookings for mobility in the fourth quarter of 2020.

While the move will increase Uber’s costs in the UK, the company continues to aim for adjusted EBITDA profitability through the year-end.

Earlier this year, Uber lost a major legal battle in the UK over the issue. The country’s Supreme Court upheld a ruling that a group of drivers were workers and not independent contractors. While the decision was made with a small group of drivers, thousands more have taken action against the company.

In a comment in The Evening Standard, Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber, wrote that following the Supreme Court ruling, “we could continue to challenge drivers’ rights to any of these protections in court. Instead, we decided to turn the page.” “”

Khosrowshahi admits, “I know many observers will not pat us on the back if we take this step, which comes after a five-year legal battle. They are right, although I hope the path we have chosen will change our willingness to change shows. “”

Meanwhile, Uber and the gig economy as a whole are facing regulatory challenges around the world. Uber has spent millions addressing these challenges in other regions.

In California, Uber pushed back against Assembly Bill 5, a gig economy bill passed by law in 2019 that tightened the rules for classifying workers as independent contractors.

After a widespread campaign that cost over $ 200 million – the most expensive election campaign in the state’s history – Uber and a handful of other gig economy companies used Uber to convince voters to support an election campaign called Proposition 22 and other gig economy platforms have been exempted from state labor law.

In return, gig workers received some benefits without full employment status. Some of the additional cost of providing benefits has been passed on to carpooling.

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Health

Well being Care Employee Had Critical Allergic Response After Pfizer’s Covid Vaccine

Health Care Worker Had Serious Allergic Reaction After Pfizer's Covid Vaccine

WASHINGTON – Two health care workers at the same Alaska hospital developed reactions just minutes after receiving the coronavirus vaccine from Pfizer this week, including a worker who was supposed to stay in the hospital until Thursday.

Health officials said the cases would not disrupt their plans to launch vaccines and that they would share the information for the sake of transparency.

The first worker, a middle-aged woman with no history of allergies, had an anaphylactic reaction that began 10 minutes after receiving the vaccine at the Bartlett Regional Hospital in Juneau on Tuesday, a hospital official said. She had a rash over her face and trunk, shortness of breath, and an increased heart rate.

Dr. Lindy Jones, the hospital’s emergency room medical director, said the worker was first given a shot of adrenaline, a standard treatment for severe allergic reactions. Her symptoms subsided, but then came back and she was treated with steroids and an adrenaline drop.

When the doctors tried to stop the drip, her symptoms reappeared, so the woman was taken to the intensive care unit, which was observed all night, and then taken off the drip early Wednesday morning, Dr. Jones.

Dr. Jones had said earlier Wednesday that the woman should be discharged that evening, but the hospital said late Wednesday that she would be staying one more night.

The second worker received his shot Wednesday and developed eye swelling, lightheadedness and a sore throat 10 minutes after the injection, the hospital said in a statement. He was taken to the emergency room and treated with adrenaline, Pepcid, and Benadryl, though the hospital said the reaction wasn’t anaphylaxis. The worker was back to normal within an hour and was released.

The hospital, which had given a total of 144 doses on Wednesday night, said both workers didn’t want their experience to negatively impact others who line up for the vaccine.

“We have no plans to change our vaccination schedule, dosage, or treatment regimen,” said Dr. Anne Zink, Alaska’s chief medical officer, in a statement.

Although the Pfizer vaccine was shown to be safe and 95 percent effective in a clinical trial of 44,000 participants, the Alaska cases are likely to heighten concerns about possible side effects. Experts said developments could lead to calls for stricter guidelines to ensure recipients were carefully monitored for side effects.

Dr. Paul A. Offit, a vaccine expert and a member of an outside advisory panel that recommended the Food and Drug Administration approve Pfizer’s emergency vaccine, said the appropriate precautions have already been taken. For example, he said, requiring recipients to remain in place for 15 minutes after receiving the vaccine helped ensure that the woman was treated quickly.

“I don’t think this means we should take a break,” he said. “Not at all.” But he said the researchers need to find out “which component of the vaccine is causing this response”.

Dr. Jay Butler, a leading infectious disease expert with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the situation in Alaska showed that the surveillance system was working. The agency has recommended that the vaccine be given in environments where oxygen and adrenaline are available to treat anaphylactic reactions.

Millions of Americans are expected to be vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine by the end of the year. As of Wednesday evening, it was unclear how many Americans had received it so far. Alex M. Azar II, the secretary for health and human services, said his department would release these data “several days or maybe a week later.”

The Alaska woman’s response was believed to be similar to the anaphylactic reactions two health workers in the UK had after receiving the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine last week. How they both recovered.

These cases are expected to occur Thursday, when FDA scientists are due to meet with the agency’s external panel of experts to decide whether regulators should recommend Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine for the emergency.

Although the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines are based on the same technology and are similar in their ingredients, it is not clear whether an allergic reaction to one vaccine would occur with the other. Both are made up of genetic material called mRNA, which is trapped in a bubble of oily molecules called lipids, although they use different combinations of lipids.

Dr. Offit said the bladders in both vaccines are coated with a stabilizing molecule called polyethylene glycol, which he saw as a “prime candidate” for causing an allergic reaction. He stressed that further research was needed.

Pfizer’s study did not identify serious adverse events from the vaccine, although many participants experienced pain, fever, and other side effects. The Alaskan reactions were thought to be related to the vaccine because they came on so quickly after the shot.

A Pfizer spokeswoman, Jerica Pitts, said the company doesn’t have all the details of the Alaska situation but is working with local health officials. The vaccine contains information that indicates that medical treatment should be available in the event of a rare anaphylactic event, she said. “We will closely monitor any reports suggestive of serious post-vaccination allergic reactions and update the labeling language as necessary,” said Ms. Pitts.

After workers in the UK fell ill, authorities there warned against giving the vaccines to anyone with a history of severe allergic reactions. They later clarified their concerns and changed the wording of “severe allergic reactions” to mean that the vaccine should not be given to anyone who has ever had an anaphylactic reaction to a food, medicine, or vaccine. That type of response to a vaccine is “very rare,” they said.

Pfizer officials said the two Britons who had the reaction had severe allergies in the past. A 49-year-old woman has had egg allergies in the past. The other, a 40-year-old woman, had a history of allergies to several drugs. Both wore EpiPen-like devices to inject adrenaline in the event of such a reaction.

Pfizer has said that its vaccine does not contain egg ingredients.

The UK update also said a third patient had a “possible allergic reaction” but did not describe it.

In the United States, federal regulators on Friday gave adults ages 16 and older full approval for the vaccine. Healthcare providers have been warned not to give the vaccine to anyone with a “known history of a severe allergic reaction” to any component of the vaccine. This is a standard warning for vaccines.

Due to the UK cases, FDA officials have announced that they will require Pfizer to step up surveillance for anaphylaxis and provide data on it once the vaccine continues to be used. Pfizer also said that it was recommended that the vaccine be given in environments with access to anaphylaxis treatment equipment. Last weekend, the CDC said people with severe allergies could be safely vaccinated, with close monitoring 30 minutes after receiving the shot.

Anaphylaxis can be life-threatening, with difficulty breathing and drops in blood pressure that usually occur within minutes or even seconds of contact with a food or drug or even a substance such as latex that the person is allergic to.

Carl Zimmer contributed to the reporting.