Amazon accused of under-reporting Covid cases contracted at work

Workers pack boxes during operations on Cyber Monday at Amazon’s fulfillment center in Robbinsville, New Jersey, US. Of the almost 20,000 employees the company said contracted the coronavirus last year, Amazon maintains only 27 potentially caught it at work, according to the Strategic Organising Centre. — Reuters

Amazon.com Inc provided “misleading or grossly incomplete” data about the number of Covid-19 infections potentially spread in its US facilities, according to a labour group 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 only 27 potentially caught it at work, according to the Strategic Organising Centre, which reviewed Amazon’s annual workplace illness and injury disclosures to the US Department of Labor. Federal authorities last year required companies to report work-related Covid-19 cases.