For Immediate Release: July 8, 2025
Media Contact: Lisa Thomas, lisa@alignny.org, (347) 415-6431
On Prime Day, NY Must Take Warehouse Safety as
Seriously as Amazon Takes Their Bottom Line
NEW YORK, NY – On Amazon Prime Day, Lucas Shapiro, ALIGN Deputy Director and leader of the New Yorkers for a Fair Economy coalition, released the following statement:
“Just how insatiable is Amazon’s greed? Prime Day is now a grueling four days long, meaning Amazon workers will work overtime this week and next to deliver a deluge of orders. For workers, these sale events spike injuries as relentless demand converges with dangerous heat and unsafe conditions. It’s a stark contrast to the lavish $50 million wedding of Amazon’s Executive Chairman Jeff Bezos, paid for on the backs of exploited workers who Amazon denies a voice on the job.
“In New York, our long-fought Warehouse Worker Injury Reduction Act is now law, but without fierce enforcement and employer accountability, workers won’t reap the benefits they so sorely need. We urge Governor Hochul and her Department of Labor to take warehouse safety as seriously as Amazon takes their bottom line, setting proactive, strict benchmarks for employers to protect workers first. In the meantime, we’ll keep fighting until every New York worker is safe.”
Background
As of June 1, 2025, this new NYS law establishes:
- Annual safety expert evaluations of large warehouses (defined as 100 or more employees at a single warehouse or 1,000 or more employees at multiple warehouses) for potential risks of injury
- Consistent safety standards across New York warehouses
- Improved training
- On-site medical care from qualified providers
Employers must:
- Once a year: hire a safety professional to evaluate their warehouse for injury risk, including workstations and layout, pace of work, training, and on-site medical practices
- Within 30 days: correct risk factors or provide a timeline for completing fixes and record all steps taken to eliminate hazards
- Provide adequate medical care without delay to workers who report injuries to the on-site medical services
- Medical office staff must operate within their legal scope of practice and be supervised by a physician
- Medical staff are required to observe, in person, jobs involving manual materials handling within the warehouse and all risk factors identified in evaluations
- Provide an annual injury reduction training to all employees including
- Workplace injury risks and how to reduce them
- Medical treatment protocols
- How to create a workplace safety committee to report and fix safety concerns
- Employee rights to enforce the law without retaliation from the company
Workers have a right to:
- Request a copy of safety evaluation findings and records of employer fixes and receive within 1 business day
- Request a secondary evaluation by a certified ergonomist within 30 days if they deem initial findings insufficient
- Protection from retaliation for safety evaluation requests
- A summary of treatment protocols for workers covering all aspects of the on-site medical and first aid practices
- Take trainings during normal work hours and without loss of pay
Download our Know Your Rights resource.
About New Yorkers for a Fair Economy
New Yorkers for a Fair Economy (NYFE) is a coalition of labor unions, small businesses, and immigrant and community organizations uniting to safeguard our state from the abusive practices of big corporations and achieve an economy that works for all New Yorkers. NYFE is led by ALIGN (Alliance for a Greater New York) and includes labor unions Teamsters Joint Council 16 and Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union; community groups like New York Communities for Change and New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health; and research and advocacy organizations like National Employment Law Project and Strategic Organizing Center, among others.
###