As the expressed employee, workers have a right to file a complaint to OSHA inspect their workplace if they believe that their employee is not following OSHA standards or that there are serious hazards. With that being said, OSHA would have to conduct an investigation based on the company’s employees concern. OSHA’s role would be to determine if Amazon has violated any legal requirements of specific public standards or less specific general duty clauses.

As a Human Resource consultant, I would advise first to review the job description to access job specific job duties and requirements of the work flow analysis design. Then develop training and modifications to the work conditions. Prime examples:

With heat & humidity – there may be a few external sources we can control such as steam leaks or excessive pools of water.

One important source of heat is the heat we create by working. We all know that the harder we work; the more internal heat we generate. This is added to the heat burden of a hot environment. That can be controlled by implementing a work/rest cycle or by reducing the pace of production. I realize that’s not likely to happen – but it should be mentioned because it might be the most effective option.

Once we've done what we can to try to eliminate the hazard, we look at engineering controls. Conditioning the air to cool it and to reduce the humidity is the next best thing. Keep in mind – meat packing, poultry and food processing plants have the capability to make cold air. They just have to be convinced to put it where workers need it. If they won’t cool the air, they can at least mix it with a good amount of dryer and possibly cooler air from the outside.

After engineering controls, we look at Administrative Controls – training, procedures, rules, signs, warnings, etc. It’s important to train workers and managers about how to recognize a heat emergency and what actions to take. Workers must know the warning signs and must feel empowered to act on them. It’s a good idea to find out if the warehouse phones can get an outside line to make emergency calls, and to know the protocol for doing so. It is important to point out that a good emergency response system is not evidence of a good heat program.

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