On the afternoon of May 8, 20-year-old Kaise Grosbick was attempting to remove an obstruction from the upper conveyor belt at an Amazon distribution center in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He was on his way to the stuck area in a lift when his head struck the conveyor belt and he became trapped in the machine, according to a safety order issued on September 18. He died from blunt force injuries.
Investigations into Amazon’s Safety
After an 11-week investigation, Indiana safety officials found that Amazon had failed to provide a workplace “free from recognized hazards that caused or were likely to cause death” and issued a serious safety citation.
Weak Penalties
What is the penalty? A $7,000 fine, the maximum in Indiana.
Weak Enforcement Ability
Under increasing scrutiny from multiple government agencies regarding safety at Amazon’s distribution centers, cases like Grosbick’s reveal the limited ability of state and federal regulatory agencies to impose penalties or enforce safety policies on powerful companies like Amazon, which reported $9.9 billion in profit in the last quarter.
Ongoing Investigations
Investigations are currently underway into Amazon’s internal medical care practices and how injuries are documented and reported by Amazon, one initiated by the Attorney General for the Southern District of New York and another by the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. The committee’s chair, Bernie Sanders, has demanded information on “systematically reported injury rates” in the company.
No Significant Consequences
However, Amazon has not yet faced any new consequences as a result of this regulatory activity. If it loses in Washington state, it can appeal, a process that could take years. So far, congressional investigations have not yielded any results.
Coordinated Investigations
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration typically investigates individual facilities; the agency has stated that it would take 160 years to inspect every workplace in the United States. But coordinated investigations by OSHA, like those at Amazon, can lead to company-wide settlements. Recently, the agency reached a settlement with Dollar Tree and Family Dollar over blocked exit routes. That settlement amounted to $1.35 million after a six-year investigation and total individual fines of $15 million.
Weak Penalties
In 2016, OSHA raised the minimum fines for safety violations, increasing the penalty for repeated violations to $124,709 from $70,000, and the penalty for serious violations to $12,471 from $7,000. However, Debra Berkowitz, a former head of OSHA, stated that safety fines are still “ridiculously low — even in cases of death where the company violated the law.”
Lack of Strong Worker Protections
In states that run their own occupational safety and health programs, these fines can be even lower. Indiana is considered one of the weakest states for worker protections in the country, according to former federal workplace safety officials. The state not only caps fines for serious violations at $7,000, but it also bars families from suing for wrongful death in civil court — even in cases like Grosbick’s where state officials said the company should have done more to prevent the death.
Amazon’s Response
According to the Indiana safety order, Amazon must properly train employees like Grosbick, enforce safety rules concerning operating lifts under low-clearance machinery, and more clearly identify “hazard zones.” Amazon disputes the citation, asserting that the company moved quickly to address safety issues, for example, by posting signs in “low-clearance areas.”
Impact
Penalties
Amazon spokesperson Maureen Lynch Vogel said in an email, “Our thoughts remain with our employee’s family and the site team. After the tragedy, we immediately closed the facility, notified the Indiana Occupational Safety Administration, and began cooperating with their investigation.” Vogel added that Grosbick’s training was up to date and that he was wearing the required safety equipment at the time of the incident.
Regarding Amazon’s safety record in Washington, Vogel previously stated that the claims are “inaccurate and do not reflect the reality of safety at Amazon.” She said, “The truth is that we are always investing in safety, and our efforts are working.”
Vogel added that “OSHA records confirm that there are no systematic reports of injuries” at Amazon, and that the company takes “the safety and health of our employees seriously.” She stated, “Government claims do not reflect the reality of safety at our site.”
Personal Consequences
Grosbick graduated from Wayne High School in 2021. He died 10 days before his 21st birthday, after more than a year of his father Gary’s death from stomach cancer, leaving his mother Tracy alone.
Tracy declined to comment on this article while the state deals with a workers’ compensation claim. According to Indiana law, she may be entitled to two-thirds of her son’s wages for 10 years, along with funeral expenses, if she can prove she was partially dependent on him.
According to Grosbick’s obituary, he enjoyed video games, music, and spending time with friends.
Alexis Smiley, a former classmate of Grosbick, also worked at the Amazon warehouse in Fort Wayne. She said of Grosbick, “He was very smart and creative, and he was always trying to help.”
She mentioned that the day the incident occurred was chaotic and horrifying, leaving her concerned that it could happen again. The following day, co-workers released lanterns into the sky in tribute to his memory, local news station reported.
Grosbick was not the first employee to die at Amazon in Indiana. In 2017, a 59-year-old man died after being crushed by a forklift at an Amazon warehouse in Plainfield. An Indiana health inspector who investigated the incident found that Amazon committed four serious safety violations and imposed a fine of $7,000 for each — totaling $28,000.
Amazon, which contested the violations at the time, stated that it has always cooperated with the Indiana Occupational Safety Administration.
In 2016, Golda Fischer’s husband, Myron, died while working at a hotel maintenance job in Marion, Indiana. Workplace safety officials cited the hotel for four safety violations and imposed a fine of $2,400. However, Golda was shocked to learn that the law prevented her from suing her husband’s employer.
She said, “They were the cause of his death, and I couldn’t do anything.” While she stated that “money won’t bring him back,” she noted that a legal settlement would have provided her with peace of mind that the hotel had a financial incentive to improve its operations. “That would have changed things.”
Wagner, an Indiana attorney, stated that civil lawsuits would be a more effective deterrent than fines from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which are often too small to have a real impact on most companies.
He said, “All it takes is a big settlement, and the company will operate completely differently. We can’t rely on OSHA to do that.”
While Indiana’s program operates independently, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration oversees it. A 2022 federal OSHA report found that Indiana’s program needs “more review” because the average fine for serious violations is more than 25 percent lower than the national average due to “Indiana OSHA not adopting increased penalties in 2016.”
Admitted
The Indiana Occupational Safety and Health Administration raised the issue in a 2022 letter to the Federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, but it said that lifting penalties would require legislative intervention. The letter stated, “The Indiana Occupational Safety and Health Administration provided language and information for that; however, the Indiana Occupational Safety and Health Administration cannot compel the Indiana General Assembly to act.” The Indiana legislative body raised some workplace safety fines in 2019, including increasing the fine for serious or “willful” violations that result in death to $132,598.
Last year, the Federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration threatened to partially withdraw Arizona’s state plan over penalty noncompliance with the federal minimums. The issue was dropped after Arizona enacted legislation increasing some state penalties.
McFarland, a spokesperson for the Indiana Occupational Safety and Health Administration, said in an email statement, “Federal law does not directly require the Indiana Occupational Safety and Health Administration to have the same maximum penalties as the Federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration.”
However, Victoria Gudinez, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Labor, stated in an email that state plans “are required to be at least as effective as the Federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration.” She added that the agency will continue to work with Indiana and monitor their progress while addressing concerns related to penalty levels.
When contacted for comment, the Indiana Department of Labor referred to its press release regarding its record: “We see these steps that companies continue to take in improving workplace health and safety overall. The Indiana Department of Labor will continue to work with companies across the state to drive this trend.”
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