The government is investigating Amazon’s severe weather event rules following deaths

The Home Committee on Oversight and Reform has launched an investigation into Amazon’s labor practices round extreme climate occasions, specializing in the corporate’s Illinois warehouse the place six folks died in a twister strike final winter.

The committee is looking for paperwork and communication information from Amazon inside the subsequent two weeks, in response to a letter signed by Reps. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), and Cori Bush (D-MO) and despatched Thursday to Amazon CEO Andy Jassy.

The letter cites experiences that Amazon threatened to fireside staff in the event that they left work because the twister bore down on the world and that supply dispatchers weren’t allowed to name drivers again with out Amazon’s approval, even when there was an lively twister warning. The storm ended up hitting an Amazon warehouse, which collapsed and killed six folks.

The committee is looking for an intensive quantity of data from Amazon — the letter requests paperwork concerning the firm’s emergency preparedness necessities, the drills it carried out in Edwardsville, and logs of “all communications between managerial employees, staff, or contractors concerning employment duties and firm protocol in the course of the extreme climate occasions,” amongst different issues.

Lawmakers additionally need documentation on Amazon’s inside critiques or investigations into the occasions in Edwardsville, in addition to info on any self-discipline staff and contractors confronted in Illinois and different places. Amazon is requested to supply the paperwork by April 14th.

The legislators additionally convey up considerations which have arisen at different Amazon warehouses — a number of the info requests pertain to Amazon employees being informed to maintain working throughout wildfires in California, excessive heatwaves in Washington and Oregon, and hurricanes in 2017 and 2018.

This isn’t the primary authorities investigation into Amazon’s warehouse practices in Edwardsville. Two teams of lawmakers despatched letters demanding solutions in December, and the Occupational Security and Well being Administration (OSHA) opened its personal investigation.

Amazon didn’t instantly reply to The Verge’s request for remark, however considered one of its spokespeople informed The New York Instances: “Our focus continues to be on supporting our staff and companions, the households who misplaced family members, the encircling group, and all these affected by the tornadoes. We’ll reply to this letter sooner or later.”