- Coupang, a South Korean e-commerce site backed by Softbank and Sequoia Capital, confirmed one of its delivery people died last week.
- Union workers allege the death is a result of increased workloads following the coronavirus outbreak that’s causing more people to shop online.
- The incident serves as an example of what could happen to US warehouse and delivery workers, as US e-commerce sites, like Amazon, are experiencing a similar surge in traffic and order volume.
- Multiple Amazon warehouse workers told Business Insider that they are afraid of going to work as the risk of suffering an injury or contracting the coronavirus disease has increased in recent weeks.
- Amazon announced on Monday that it plans to hire 100,000 new warehouse and delivery workers and raise their pay by $2 per hour to deal with the increased workloads.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
A delivery worker’s death in South Korea could be a sign of what’s to come for US e-commerce companies, as the coronavirus crisis puts more pressure on their labor-intensive warehousing and delivery workers.
Coupang, a South Korean e-commerce site last valued at $9 billion with backing from Softbank and Sequoia Capital, saw one of its delivery workers die last week, allegedly because of excessive workloads caused by a spike in orders as more people buy online in fear of the coronavirus, according to union reps cited by KBS News, the national public broadcaster of South Korea.
The report said the 47-year old man was a contractor working 10-hour overnight shifts that ended at 8 a.m. The man, who had started the job two weeks ago, was found dead in one of the residential buildings he had entered to deliver a package. A regular Coupang employee delivers about 300 packages per shift, but this man was assigned only about half of the workloads given his inexperience, according to the Korea Herald. Meanwhile, Coupang’s orders have jumped to 3 million per day, or almost 40%, in recent weeks, following the coronavirus outbreak in the country, according to the Korea JoongAng Daily.
Coupang’s representative confirmed the death of the delivery man to Business Insider. The union representative didn’t respond to a request for comment.
The incident highlights the perils of increased orders at e-commerce companies as more people flock to online shopping amid the coronavirus crisis. As these companies deal with higher demand, their labor workers — many of them low-wage hourly workers — who pack and ship packages face heightened risk of suffering on-the-job injuries or contracting the coronavirus disease.
“Accident rates will spike, workers will be worked to a point beyond exhaustion,” Jake Wilson, a sociology professor at California State University, told Business Insider. “Ironically, many of these workers will be even more susceptible to acquiring coronavirus.”
BI Intelligence
There are no known cases of deaths or serious injuries yet among US e-commerce companies like Amazon or Walmart.
But a growing number of labor workers at Amazon are expressing concerns about the increased health risks.
Multiple Amazon warehouse workers told Business Insider that they are afraid to go to work because all the interactions with employees and packages could leave them more exposed to potentially contracting the virus and getting hurt at work. While Amazon told its global workforce to work from home if they can, most warehouse and delivery workers can’t do so remotely.
Amazon now offers unlimited unpaid leave to all employees and two weeks of pay for those affected by the disease. But these people said they can’t afford to take extended unpaid leave because they still have to “pay their bills.”
These workers, who wanted to remain anonymous out of fear of retribution from Amazon, said Amazon had offered paid sick leave for some warehouse employees when the 2018 Paradise Fire took place in California.
In fact, a group of Amazon warehouse workers started an online petition last week, demanding the company provide better overall pay and paid sick leave regardless of diagnosis. In the petition, first reported by Buzzfeed, the workers say the increase in package volume has placed a “greater strain on workers,” but Amazon continues to “enforce and raise productivity quotas.”
Nik Theodore, head of the urban planning and policy department at the University of Illinois-Chicago, told Business Insider that pressure on online retail operators is mounting now that consumer demand has soared. Most of that pressure, however, is concentrated on their logistics systems, particularly on labor-heavy roles in warehouse and delivery functions, he said.
“The combination of increased demand as consumers try to stay away from crowded stores, exacting productivity targets, and short fulfillment windows is exposing warehouse workers to a range of hazards,” Theodore said.
On Monday, Amazon announced that it is hiring an additional 100,000 employees in its warehouse and delivery networks. It also said that it will raise their pay by $2 per hour through April, as the coronavirus causes an “unprecedented” increase in demand for this time of year.
Amazon also said over the weekend that as the coronavirus spread across the world, it’s seeing a sharp increase in online shoppers. That’s caused some of its most popular brands and household staple products to run out of stock, while delaying its normal delivery cycle.
In an email statement to Business Insider, Amazon’s representative said it’s consulted with medical experts and health authorities to create a better working environment, and pointed to its blog post last week, which details the moves it’s made, including the launch of a $25 million fund to support partners. It also said it has implemented a series of preventative health measures for employees, like increasing the frequency of cleaning at all sites.
For Amazon, working conditions for its warehouse and delivery workers have always been a contentious issue.
According to a report published by the National Employment Law Project this month, Amazon relies on a “extreme high-churn model” that continually replaces workers “to sustain dangerous and grueling work pace demands.”
Another report by Reveal last year showed higher-than-average injury rates across Amazon facilities, especially during peak shopping seasons.
Wilson, the Cal State professor who’s also working on a book about Amazon’s logistics network, said, at the very minimum, large companies like Amazon must provide every single worker with 100% paid sick leave, especially during times of crisis. He also said they should be responsible for paying for workers and contractors to get tested, and should cover their medical treatment as well, since most of these workers are the most socially vulnerable.
“Amazon and other e-commerce firms have created a highly precarious workforce, and these workers are extremely vulnerable because they are forced to go to work to pay their bills,” Wilson said. “Social distancing, in so many ways, is a luxury of the affluent.”
