Amazon issued 13,000 disciplinary notices at single U.S. warehouse

NEW YORK, July 12 (Reuters) – Amazon worker Gerald Bryson had hand-counted thousands of items in his warehouse’s inventory over three days when his manager showed him a “Supportive Feedback Document.”

Bryson had made 22 errors, the 2018 write-up said, including tallying 19 products in a storage bin that in fact had 20. If Bryson erred like this six times within a year, the notice stated, he would be fired from the Staten Island warehouse, one of Amazon.com Inc’s (AMZN.O) largest in the United States.

Internal Amazon documents, previously unreported, reveal how routinely the company measured workers’ performance in minute detail and admonished those who fell even slightly short of expectations – sometimes before their shift ended. In a single year ending April 2020, the company issued more than 13,000 so-called “disciplines” in Bryson’s warehouse alone, one lawyer for Amazon said in court papers. The facility had about 5,300 employees around that time.

The records and interviews of current and former employees show the enormous pressure faced by Amazon line workers to complete tasks as accurately and quickly as the company demands – creating an environment that some workers told Reuters has fueled unionization efforts around the country. In March, Bryson’s workplace voted to become Amazon’s first organized warehouse in the United States, and staff from more than 100 other facilities nationwide are striving to follow suit, according to the Amazon Labor Union, an independent labor group formed in April 2021.

Amazon, the largest online retailer in the United States, disclosed these records in response to a complaint by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) over Bryson’s dismissal in April 2020. Many of these documents also were contained in a separate and ongoing federal court lawsuit in which the NLRB sought to stop what it called Amazon’s “flagrant unfair labor practices” – actions the company denied in court papers.

In a statement, Amazon said the goals it sets are “fair and based on what the majority of the team is actually accomplishing.” The company says it delivers more praise to workers than criticism. “We give a lot of feedback to employees throughout the year to help them succeed and make sure they understand expectations,” Amazon said.

Kathy Drew King, regional director of the NLRB’s Brooklyn office, said the board “has vigorously sought” Amazon’s compliance with labor law.

An administrative law judge this April ordered Bryson’s reinstatement after finding the retailer had fired him illegally for protesting workplace safety conditions. Amazon is appealing the judge’s decision, saying in a statement that the company terminated Bryson for defaming a colleague during a demonstration in the warehouse’s parking lot. Bryson said the employee had verbally attacked him.

Bryson, now a union organizer, added that he isn’t sure he’ll return. “If I walk back through those doors, it’s going to show the workers that they can fight,” he said.

OFF TASK FOR SIX MINUTES

Amazon told the judge in Bryson’s case…