California 1st state to set warehouse worker quota limits for retailers like Amazon

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Assembly Bill 701, authored by Assemblywomen Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego, is the nation’s first legislation to make companies disclose the warehouse productivity requirements and work-speed metrics they set for employees.

A bill that seeks to protect California warehouse workers from abusive quota systems has been signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

The governor signed Assembly Bill 701 on Wednesday, the same day he also signed 32 other Assembly and Senate bills approved by the California Legislature.

“We cannot allow corporations to put profit over people,”  Newsom said in a statement late Wednesday. “The hardworking warehouse employees who have helped sustain us during these unprecedented times should not have to risk injury or face punishment as a result of exploitative quotas that violate basic health and safety.”

AB 701, authored by Assemblywomen Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego, is the nation’s first legislation to make companies disclose the productivity requirements and work-speed metrics they set for employees.

The bill prohibits workers from being fired for failing to meet a quota that interfered with their ability to use the bathroom or take rest breaks, and it bars employers from disciplining warehouse employees for being “off-task” when they are complying with health and safety laws.

AB 701 doesn’t specifically name Amazon, but supporters and opponents of the bill said the Seattle-based e-commerce giant was clearly the target for the regulations.

“Amazon is pushing workers to risk their bodies for next-day delivery while they can’t so much as use the restroom without fearing retaliation,” Gonzalez said recently. “We can’t allow corporations to get rich off of the injuries of their workforce.”

In a February 2020 interview in The Guardian, an Amazon spokesman said, “Like most companies, we have performance expectations for every Amazonian and we measure actual performance against those expectations.”

The bill would prohibit workers from being fired for failing to meet a quota that interfered with their ability to use the bathroom or take rest breaks, and it would bar employers from disciplining warehouse employees for being “off-task” when they are complying with health and safety laws. (Photo by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

Strong opposition

The California Retailers Association opposed AB 701, saying it impacts too many companies when the measure is clearly aimed at Amazon.

“If you cast this huge a net to go after one company there will be unintended consequences,” association President Rachel Michelin said. “We already have Cal/OSHA, which has the authority to enforce workplace safety. If the regulations need more teeth, let’s start there rather than creating a whole new set of laws.”

Michelin said the bill would impact distribution centers across multiple industries and would increase the cost of living for Californians, kill good-paying jobs and damage the region’s fragile supply chain.

Fifty organizations, ranging from retailers and food producers to auto-parts manufacturers and ethnic chambers of commerce, oppose AB 701. They are united via noonab701.org.

A recent study conducted by the Ontario-based Warehouse Worker Resource Center and Human Impact Partners highlighted austere working conditions at Amazon warehouses.

“Workers reported that Amazon’s excessive quotas make it impossible to complete work and make rate safely,” the report said. “The majority of workers surveyed reported that they experienced a constant state of stress trying to keep up.”

A fact sheet that accompanies the report shows Amazon warehouse workers are allowed just six minutes of “time off task” a day, aside from their 30-minute lunch break. Employees say the closest restroom in the company’s massive warehouses is often more than six minutes away from their workstation.

“Amazon’s work rates dictate a dangerous pace of work that leads to injury,” the report said. “Research demonstrates that a fast pace of work is associated with a range of health impacts, including neck and shoulder pain, muscle or joint symptoms and back disorders.”

Sixty-seven percent of Amazon workers surveyed for the study reported developing injuries from their work at Amazon, and 75% said their required work rate is either “always” or “often” too high to work at a safe pace.

Under AB 701, warehouse workers who believe a quota is unsafe are entitled to 90 days of their personal work-speed metrics and descriptions of quotas to better document violations.

If an employee is disciplined within 90 days of requesting the data or complaining to their employer or a state agency about an unsafe quota, AB 701 creates a presumption that the action was retaliatory.

The following is a list provided by the governor’s office of bills Newsom signed Wednesday, Sept. 22:

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