Washington's Department of Labor and Industries has fined Amazon $85,800 after an inspection of the company's Spokane-area fulfillment center. The department accused Amazon of knowingly putting workers at risk of injury by requiring them to work at a fast pace, which puts them at risk of work-related musculoskeletal disorders. The Spokane facility has the highest injury rate of any Amazon warehouse in the state, with over 400 workers' compensation claims filed for these types of injuries in the past three years.

This marks the fifth time that Amazon has been cited for unsafe working conditions by L&I in the last few years. The department issued a "willful" citation with a higher penalty for the Spokane facility due to similar violations at other Amazon facilities in Washington.

Amazon spokesperson Maureen Lynch Vogel stated that the company disagrees with the allegations and plans to appeal the fine, as it has done with previous citations. Vogel also claimed that Amazon has improved its recordable incident rate in the US by 23% since 2019.

The latest fine adds to the mounting investigations and scrutiny surrounding Amazon's treatment of its warehouse workers.