On the afternoon of May 8, 20-year-old Kyse Grossbeck was trying to remove an obstruction on the conveyor belt at an Amazon distribution center in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He was on his way to the malfunctioning area on a raised platform when his head struck the conveyor belt and he became trapped in the machinery, according to a safety order issued on September 18. He died from severe injuries.
Multiple Investigations into Amazon’s Safety
After an 11-week investigation, Indiana safety officials found that Amazon failed to ensure a workplace “free from recognized hazards that cause or are likely to cause death” and issued a serious safety violation.
The penalty? A $7,000 fine, the maximum in Indiana.
Ongoing Investigations and Minimal Penalties
Under multiple investigations into Amazon’s safety practices, the company is facing unprecedented scrutiny due to the high injury rates in its warehouses, with several government entities raising warnings about environmental safety. But incidents like Grossbeck’s reveal the limited ability of state and federal regulatory bodies to impose effective penalties or enforce safety policies on large companies like Amazon, which reported $9.9 billion in profit in the last quarter.
“$7,000 for the death of a 20-year-old? What will that do to Amazon?” said Stephen Wagner, an Indiana attorney advocating for legislation to protect workers’ rights in the state. “There is no real financial incentive for an employer like Amazon to change the work environment and make it safer.”
Few Investigations and Threats for Amazon
The fatal Grossbeck incident occurred at a time when safety regulators nationwide were ramping up investigations into Amazon’s safety practices. In 2021, Amazon workers sustained serious injuries at higher rates than workers in the industry itself, according to a Washington Post report, although the company denied those figures and stated that its safety record had improved since then.
Since 2022, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has filed at least half a dozen safety violations against Amazon, imposing fines exceeding $270,000 as part of a coordinated response to high rates of environmental injuries and musculoskeletal disorder risks among Amazon employees. The company faces similar allegations in Washington state, where it defended its record in a hearing before state safety officials. Results are pending.
Weak Penalties and Ongoing Investigations
However, Amazon has yet to face serious consequences as a result of this regulatory activity. If it loses in Washington state, it could appeal, a process that could take years. So far, congressional investigations have not yielded any results.
OSHA typically investigates individual facilities; the agency stated it would take 160 years to inspect every workplace in the United States. But coordinated OSHA investigations like those into Amazon can lead to company-wide settlements. Recently, the agency reached a settlement with Dollar Tree and Family Dollar stores over blocked exit routes. This settlement followed six years of investigation and a total of individual fines amounting to $15 million.
This slow and comprehensive approach aims to change how the company operates, rather than dealing with individual workplace problems through OSHA’s limited fines system.
Weak Penalties and Weak Legislation in Indiana
In states that run their own health and safety 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 sets a $7,000 limit for serious violation fines but also prevents families from filing wrongful death lawsuits in civil courts—even in cases like Grossbeck’s, where state officials said the company should have done more to prevent the death.
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For safety reasons in Indiana, Amazon should have properly trained employees like Grosbeke, enforced safety rules regarding operating elevated platforms under low-design machinery, and clearly defined “hazard zones.” Amazon disputes the violation, claiming it acted swiftly to address safety issues, for instance, by posting signs in “low-design areas.”
Amazon spokesperson Maureen Lynch Fogel 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 Indiana’s safety department, and began cooperating with their investigation.” Fogel added that Grosbeke’s training was up to date and that he was wearing the required safety equipment at the time of the incident.
Few consequences and ongoing investigations
Grosbeke was not the first Amazon employee to die on the job 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 Indiana’s safety department.
The family of the deceased man declined to comment on this story.
In 2016, Golda Fischer’s husband, Myron, died while working in maintenance at a hotel in Marion, Indiana. Workplace safety officials cited four safety violations and imposed a $2,400 fine on the hotel. However, Golda was shocked to learn that the law prevented her from suing her husband’s employer.
She said: “They are the reason for his death, and I couldn’t do anything.” Although “money won’t bring him back,” she said that a legal settlement would have given her the satisfaction of knowing the hotel had a financial incentive to improve its operations. “This would change things.”
Wagner, an attorney in Indiana, said civil lawsuits would be a more effective deterrent than OSHA fines, which are too small to make a real impact on most companies.
He said: “All it takes is a large settlement, and the company will completely change its way of operating. We can’t rely on OSHA to do that.”
Weak penalties and legislation in Indiana
Although Indiana’s program is independent, it operates under the oversight of federal OSHA. A federal OSHA report in 2022 found that Indiana’s program needed “more review” because its average penalty for serious violations is more than 25 percent lower than the national average due to “IOSHA not adopting OSHA’s penalty increases in 2016.”
Indiana OSHA acknowledged the issue in a 2022 letter to federal OSHA, but it stated that increasing penalties would require legislative intervention. The letter said: “IOSHA has provided language and information for that; however, IOSHA cannot compel the Indiana General Assembly to act.” In 2019, Indiana’s legislative assembly raised some workplace safety penalties, including increasing fines for serious or “willful” violations leading to death to $132,598.
Last year, federal OSHA threatened to partially withdraw Arizona’s independent program due to penalties not meeting federal minimums. The matter was dropped after Arizona passed legislation increasing some state penalties.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Labor said in an emailed statement that state plans “must be at least as effective as federal OSHA.” She added that the agency will continue to work with Indiana and monitor its progress and will continue to address concerns regarding penalty levels.
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The Indiana Department of Labor was contacted for a comment, and it referred to its press release regarding its record: “We see these steps that employers continue to take to improve workplace health and safety overall. The Indiana Department of Labor will continue to work with Hoosier companies across the state to drive this trend.”
Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/11/26/amazon-warehouse-death-7000-fine/
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