A worker activist has sued the Department of Labor (DOL) to force the release of records surrounding the deaths of three workers at New Jersey Amazon workplaces in 2022.
The lawsuit says DOL’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), which Amazon says opened investigations into all three deaths, has not responded to a freedom of information act (FOIA) request for documents relating to the deaths of Rafael Mota Frias, Rodger Boland, and Eric Vadinsky.
“We have questions about Amazon’s working conditions and conduct that we hope to be able to answer through gaining access to these investigations,” the lawsuit filed by Daniel Schlademan says. The lawsuit says obtaining the OSHA documents is “critical to inform New Jersey lawmakers in preventing further deaths of Amazon workers.”
Schlademan is an organizer with the Online to Offline Strategy Group, an organization supporting the Warehouse Life, which advocates for better working conditions. Warehouse Life’s current campaign, #ExposeAmazon, centers on Amazon’s injury rate.
New Jersey lawmakers are currently considering a heat standard bill that the lawsuit maintains might have protected workers like the three who died in 2022 if it had been in place three years ago.
OSHA Investigating Deaths of Amazon Workers in New Jersey
On August 14, 2024, Schlademan submitted a FOIA request seeking records concerning three OSHA investigations into Amazon’s conduct at warehouses in Carteret and Monroe, New Jersey, including Inspector notes of investigations; recordings or photographs; notes of interviews, and any reports summarizing each investigation.
He says he has not received any response from OSHA.
In the case of Mota Frias, Amazon said its own investigation attributed the death to a personal medical condition. In January 2023, OSHA issued a finding that the cause of death was cardiac arrest unrelated to work. Mota Frias died at an Amazon warehouse in Carteret on July 13, 2022.
Amazon says OSHA investigated all three deaths and found no fault on Amazon’s part. OSHA has not released findings on Boland or Vadinsky.
“These were tragic incidents and it’s really disappointing that some people are working to twist them into something they weren’t,” said Maureen Lynch Vogel, Amazon spokesperson in a statement. “As is standard in these situations, OSHA conducted thorough investigations and closed all three without citations or allegations of wrong-doing on Amazon’s part, and there’s no evidence that heat was a contributing factor in any of them.”
Amazon also says it has taken its own steps to address heat conditions in the workplace.
“We appreciate that legislators are concerned with the safety of the community members they represent. Keeping employees safe is our top priority, too, which is why we already have a strong, industry-leading heat management program, and we’ve seen the positive safety impacts of that effort,” Vogel said. For example, she said the firm’s warehouses are climate controlled and all Amazon-branded vehicles have air conditioning, which she said is “above industry standard.”
Topics Lawsuits Workers’ Compensation
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