Amazon’s Prime Day sales have been “a major cause of injuries” for warehouse workers who pick and pack customer orders at facilities across the United States, according to a report released Tuesday, July 16, 2024.

The report from Sen. Bernie Sanders draws information from a year-long Senate committee investigation into Amazon's safety practices and referred to internal company data from 2019 and 2020. The report said peak shopping times resulted in the “highest weekly injury rates” for warehouse workers.

While Amazon was not included on 2024’s annual COSH Dirty Dozen list of the most unsafe employers, it was No. 1 on 2023’s list.

The report also took into account interviews with more than 100 current and former Amazon employees, according to the Associated Press.

In a statement, Sanders said the “incredibly dangerous working conditions at Amazon” highlighted in the report are a "perfect example of the type of corporate greed that the American people are sick and tired of."

“Despite making $36 billion in profits last year and providing its CEO with over $275 million in compensation over the past three years, Amazon continues to treat its workers as disposable and with complete contempt for their safety and well-being," said Sanders, who has been critical of Amazon and supports worker efforts to unionize at the company. “That is unacceptable, and that has got to change.”

According to the Senate report, 45 out of 100 warehouse at Amazon received injuries during the 2019 Prime Day event. The number included minor injuries the company was not required to disclose to the federal government, such as bruises and superficial cuts, but also serious ones such as concussions that should have been reported, it said.

Amazon disputed the finding.

“The claims that we systemically underreport injuries, and that our actual injury rates are higher than publicly reported, are false,” Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel said in a prepared statement. “We’re required to report every injury that needs more than basic first aid, and that’s what we do.”

While Amazon “might make an occasional clerical error,” a six-month federal investigation by the OSHA found “no intentional, willful, or systemic errors” in the company’s reporting, Nantel said.

The report also alleged that Amazon had a practice of failing to refer workers for outside medical care because doing so could affect whether an injury should be considered “recordable” and referred to OSHA, according to the Associated Press.

Federal safety investigators levied fines against Amazon in recent years following inspections at some of its warehouses.

In January and February of 2023, Amazon was cited numerous times by OSHA for safety violations, including ergonomics hazards.

Last month, California fined Amazon a total of $5.9 million, accusing the company of violating the state’s Warehouse Quota Law at two facilities.

A spokesperson for Sanders' office said the committee relied on 2019 and 2020 workplace injury rate data because that’s what Amazon provided for the inquiry.

The report also says Amazon failed to adequately staff its warehouses during peak shopping times, which the company disputed, the Associated Press reported. Amazon said in March that it allocated over $750 million to safety efforts for this year.