California fined Amazon $5.9 million for violating the state’s Warehouse Quotas law, intended to restrict excessive productivity targets in warehouses, CNBC reports.
The Warehouse Quotas law requires employers to disclose productivity targets to workers and regulatory bodies. It also prohibits imposing quotas that prevent employees from taking legally mandated breaks or using restroom facilities, thus safeguarding their health and safety. The investigation found 59,017 violations at Amazon facilities in Moreno Valley and Redlands, where the company failed to notify employees of productivity quotas as mandated by law.
Amazon argues that it does not enforce fixed quotas but instead utilizes a “peer-to-peer evaluation system” to assess employee performance over time. However, California’s labor regulators criticized this approach, asserting that it potentially circumvents the protections established by the Warehouse Quotas law.
