Report warns about need for government protections for warehouse workers amid surge of injuries

WASHINGTON — A new report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office is warning about the need for new workplace protections and training for warehouse workers due to a surge of serious injuries.

Channel 2 Washington Correspondent Samantha Manning poured over the report from GAO, which said the growth of online shopping in the U.S., and limited worker protections, is leading to more injuries for warehouse workers and delivery drivers.

The report said transportation and warehouse jobs had the highest serious injury and illness rates for 2022.

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The report said workers in these industries are almost twice as likely to sustain significant injuries at work from overworking their bodies than from contact with equipment or objects.

Retail sales nearly doubled in 2022 from 2018, according to federal data, going from $438 billion to $870 billion.

The GAO report warns that growth is fueling a rise of injuries as the workers and drivers customers rely on for their shopping face rising delivery and shipping needs.

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Keith Williams, who has been a warehouse worker for 30 years, told Channel 2 Action News that he’s been hurt on the job before.

In May, he said one time he “immediately became dizzy and nauseous” after “a box came down and struck me on the base of my neck.”

Manning looked through the new GAO report about injuries in the transportation and warehousing industries which showed an average of nearly four out of every 100 workers are injured on the job in 2022.

Injuries at warehouses were twice as likely to happen from overworking instead of being injured by equipment.

Those injuries to workers include dislocated shoulders and overworked backs.

Now, there’s a bill in U.S. Congress to ban quotas for warehouse workers that violate health and safety laws, in an effort to improve protections for workers.

“The conditions are unsafe, their health is not given a priority,” Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) said in a previous interview with Channel 2 Action News.

After publishing the report, the GAO called on the U.S. Department of Labor to improve recordkeeping about injuries, ramp up training and make sure follow-ups are happening to ensure safety hazards are fixed.

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