Labor group: Amazon misled on covid data

Amazon provided “misleading or grossly incomplete” data about the number of coronavirus infections potentially spread in its U.S. facilities, according to a labor group that is calling on the federal government to investigate the company.

Of the almost 20,000 employees the company said contracted the coronavirus last year, Amazon maintains that only 27 potentially caught it at work, according to the Strategic Organizing Center, which reviewed Amazon’s annual workplace illness and injury disclosures to the Labor Department. Federal authorities last year required companies to report work-related covid-19 cases. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos also owns The Washington Post.)

The center, whose members include the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and the Service Employees International Union, compared Amazon’s covid-19 disclosures with county health department records about covid outbreaks in Los Angeles, Salt Lake City and the Portland, Ore., suburb of Troutdale. The three health departments found more than 750 covid cases among Amazon workers, but Amazon’s disclosures suggest none of them was work-related, the study said.

Amazon disputed the study’s conclusions, saying the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has acknowledged the difficulty of proving whether a person contracted covid-19 while on the job. Amazon interviews employees to determine exposure risk and has conducted 1,800 vaccination events at its facilities, according to spokeswoman Kelly Nantel.

“These claims are intentionally misleading to try and paint a false picture,” Nantel said.