An Amazon warehouse worker died on the job at Oregon facility

An Amazon worker astatine the Troutdale, Oregon warehouse passed distant astatine enactment past week, a institution spokesperson confirmed to TechCrunch.

According to a study from the Western Edge, an autarkic investigative outlet covering the Pacific Northwest, the idiosyncratic collapsed connected the level astatine the PDX9 warehouse and laic dormant arsenic employees continued to enactment astir him.

“We’re profoundly saddened by the passing of a subordinate of our team, and our thoughts and deepest sympathies are with their loved ones during this hard time,” Amazon spokesperson Sam Stephenson told TechCrunch. “We’ve been successful interaction with his household and person provided resources to enactment them. For employees astatine our PDX9 facility, we’ve provided onsite grief counselors and further support. We’re thankful for the enactment of the Multnomah County Sherrif’s Department and section exigency aesculapian services.”

On a Reddit forum for Amazon fulfillment halfway workers, respective radical claiming to enactment astatine PDX9 said that the gathering had been particularly blistery aft soundproof curtains were installed, which constricted airflow. They speculated that the vigor could person contributed to the employee’s death, arsenic it would compound the carnal demands of fulfillment halfway work. According to the Western Edge, immoderate employees noticed that the gathering was cooler erstwhile they returned to enactment the adjacent day.

Amazon, however, said that Oregon’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) determined the incidental to beryllium non-work related. Employees were sent location aboriginal and were paid for the remainder of their shift; the nighttime displacement was cancelled, and employees scheduled to enactment were paid arsenic well, according to the company.

The PDX9 warehouse has a estimation for having harsh moving conditions; successful 2018, an probe from Reveal, an investigative journalism outlet, recovered that 26% of employees astatine the warehouse had sustained injuries. A report based connected 2024 OSHA information showed that the company’s fulfillment centers study superior injuries astatine a complaint much than 2 times the warehouse manufacture average.

Amazon’s fulfillment centers person been taxable to respective probes by national agencies and prosecutors implicit warehouse safety, with investigators alleging that the institution manipulated data and failed to decently papers workplace injuries. The United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York is conducting an ongoing investigation into workplace information astatine Amazon warehouses.

Amazon told TechCrunch that the institution has seen a 43% reduction successful its planetary recordable incidental complaint since 2019 — a metric that tracks immoderate work-related wounded requiring much than basal archetypal aid. The institution said it has invested much than $2.5 cardinal successful information improvements since 2019, including hundreds of millions of dollars successful 2026 alone.