A bill meant to create safer workspaces for warehouse workers failed to make it out of the House this legislative session.
The bill was introduced last year and did not get a vote ahead of Crossover Day.
Terrysa Guerra, the co-executive director of United for Respect, supported the bill.
“The Warehouse Workplace Protection Act, what it does is really addresses how warehouse employers are using electronic surveillance and productivity monitoring systems,” said Guerra.
The nonprofit supports workers organizing at Atlanta warehouses, including Amazon’s ATL 6.
“I’ve worked enough with workers to understand that we need to be partners with them in this fight,” said Guerra.
Darryl Prewitt is an associate at the Amazon ATL6 facility and a leader with advocacy group United for Respect. The 66-year-old says workers are unable to speak up about unsafe conditions in the warehouse.
“There’s also an issue that we have with, sometimes, quotas that are unfair to the employees,” said Prewitt.
Six states have already signed similar legislation into law: California, New York, Washington, Minnesota, Oregon and Connecticut.
United for Respect says the bill’s sponsor, Democratic state Rep. Kim Schofield, intends to reintroduce the bill next year.
A spokesperson for Amazon says the company has invested more than $2 billion to improve workplace safety across its operations. Amazon adds that it does not issue fixed quotas but has what it calls “performance expectations.”
“These expectations are based on multiple factors, including the performance of the entire team, site-wide. We use performance compared to peers to ensure we’re not considering any factors out of employees’ control, such as changes in the business, such as inventory, freight mix, and seasonal impacts,” said the spokesperson.
Amazon adds that it offers various ways for its employees to give feedback, including via Dragonfly.
“Available on employees’ devices or at on-site kiosks, Dragonfly enables employees to provide suggestions from the palm of their hand and notifies their site managers, who then take appropriate action as needed. In 2024, over 130,000 employees used Dragonfly to provide suggestions,” said the spokesperson.
Amazon employs approximately 1.56 million people worldwide, including over 31,000 in Georgia across various facilities, like 21 fulfillment and sortation centers and 13 delivery stations.
