New York’s state assembly on Friday passed the Warehouse Worker Protection Act (WWPA), a law that would require Amazon and other companies to disclose production quotas to workers, first reported by CNBC. If New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) enacts it, it would also prevent employees from having to meet quotas that require them to skip lunch or restroom breaks.
Like a similar law passed in California last September, the WWPA requires employers to provide each warehouse worker upon hire (or within 30 days of hire) “a written description of any quota to which the worker is subject.” Bill becomes law). It also prevents employers from penalizing workers if they fail to meet undisclosed quotas or have had to skip breaks to meet them. Gov. Hochul has not signaled whether or not she intends to approve the law, CNBC notes. The Verge reached out to Amazon for comment, but didn’t immediately receive a response.
Organizational efforts are ramping up at Amazon warehouses in New York and across the country
While the text of the bill makes no direct mention of Amazon, New York Senator Jessica Ramos (D) acknowledged that it aims to address Amazon’s management practices that Ramos claims includes the “dehumanization of workers and the punishment of the very human need for rest”. Previous reports showed that Amazon uses an automated tracking system to assess employee productivity, with some employees allegedly peeing on bottles and skipping bathroom breaks to meet the e-commerce giant’s production standards.
Organizational efforts are ramping up at Amazon warehouses in New York and across the country. In April, workers at a warehouse on Staten Island, New York, became the first Amazon warehouse workers to unionize. So far, it’s the only warehouse to have voted for a union — a neighboring Staten Island warehouse voted against unionizing last month, while the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) is contesting the results of a union election at a Bessemer. warehouse in Alabama, and claimed Amazon again interfered with the results.