PieFedUK: Ambulances called to Amazon warehouses more than 10 times as often as those called to Tesco warehouse
www.theguardian.com/technology/article/2024/aug…
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So, if this ambulances call make Amazon look bad, they might not call the ambulances anymore, and, maybe trying to treat onsite or use taxi to ferry "partner" to ER..
To put this into better perspective we need to look at this relative to the number of employees. From the article:
Tesco warehouse in Rugeley, near Birmingham, recorded only eight ambulance callouts in three years versus the 115 logged at a nearby Amazon site. Both warehouses employed large numbers of workers at the time – 1,300 at Tesco’s site and around 1,800 at Amazon’s.
So 6.15 calls / 1000 employees for Tesco vs 63 calls / 1000 employees for Amazon, or just over 10 times the rate.
I wonder what the differences are. Do Amazon force them to work a lot longer hours? Do they not provide air conditioning whereas Tesco do? Those two factors could make a huge difference.
Amazon are also dicks about sick leave. I'm sure forcing people to work, and work hard, when they're ill leads to complications.
samcThanks, for computing some useful statistics! As much as I believe the implied hypothesis that working at Amazon is bad for one's health, I think the guardian intentionally tried to present the largest number possible with no context.
Frankly, "Amazon warehouse employees 10x more likely to need an ambulance" is a more impactful headline anyway.
ᴇᴍᴘᴇʀᴏʀ 帝"a Hunger Games algorithm" might be the most depressing thing I've read all week.
It's spine chilling.
Is it wrong to expect our elected representatives to take some action against such things?
It's strange to me that people working there apparently have relatively frequent strokes. Am I underestimating how many strokes people doing difficult physical labor generally have (my impression was "not many") or is there something uniquely dangerous about the Amazon warehouses?
It's unclear and you'd need a lot more data to draw any kind of conclusions - not just the rate in the general population (for the age group) as well as those working similar jobs. It would be unusual to find a lot of strokes in working age people but a friend of mine had one at work.kn her late 40s (but she had a genetic predisposition - her father died at the same age from a heart attack).
The suggestion has been that the working conditions in Amazon factories is especially brutal because the packers are standing for such long periods of time with few breaks and have high targets they need to hit leading to considerable stress. The TUC have a page on working conditions at fulfilment centres.
nickb333It's unfortunate that they missed out on Trade Union recognition at the Coventry facility recently. I'm sure GMD (or others) will keep on trying though.