Amazon is rolling out warehouse health-and-safety 'huddles' and 'AmaZen' mindfulness kiosks as part of a safety program
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
Amazon announced it's implementing a warehouse safety program it's been trialling since 2019.
Amazon's WorkingWell program includes including daily staff meetings with interactive videos on health and safety.
It also includes mindfulness kiosks which offer guided meditation and "calming scenes with sounds."
Amazon announced Monday it would fully roll out a safety program it's been piloting in warehouses since 2019.
The company says the program, named "Working Well," would provide employees with "physical and mental activities, wellness exercises, and healthy eating support."
This would help staff "recharge and reenergize, and ultimately reduce the risk of injury," it said.
Amazon said WorkingWell is part of the company's $300 million investment in safety for 2021, but did not detail exactly how much of the $300 million it would take up.
The program involves "health and safety huddles," which involve interactive videos on "strong body mechanics, wellness topics, and ongoing safety education," Amazon said.
It also described a program called "AmaZen," which uses on-site "interactive kiosks" to guide employees through mindfulness activities, such as "guided meditations, positive affirmations, [and] calming scenes with sounds."
Amazon will also provide dedicated "wellness zones" where employees can find information about stretching.
Amazon said "aspects" of WorkingWell have been rolled out to 859,000 employees at 350 sites in North America and Europe, and that it would now roll out the program to its entire US operations network.
The e-commerce giant said it hoped the program would cut injury rates by 50% by 2025, though it did not go into detail about how it reached that figure.
Amazon has long come under fire for the injury rates inside its warehouses, and workers have previously told the press about exacting targets and quotas they are expected to hit. Company data leaked to Reveal in September last year showed injury rates in US Amazon warehouses climbed every year from 2016 to 2019.
Amazon's press release made no mention of reducing quotas, and did not mention whether workers would be given dedicated time in their workday to make use of the services that WorkingWell will provide.
Amazon did not immediately reply when contacted by Insider for comment.
Do you work in an Amazon FC which took part in the WorkingWell pilot? Contact this reporter at ihamilton@insider.com or iahamilton@protonmail.com.
Read the original article on Business Insider
