Amazon Broke 'Warehouse Quotas' Law In RivCo, SB County: State Update

MORENO VALLEY, CA — How many packages are employees at two Inland Empire Amazon warehouses expected to process per workshift?

According to California Labor Commissioner Lilia García-Brower, it was a secret. Quotas were withheld from workers, exposing them to "increased pressure to work faster," skip breaks and risk injury.

Amazon argues it doesn't have quotas and offers help for employees who struggle to meet "performance expectations."

According to an announcement Tuesday from García-Brower, her office began investigating allegations of workplace misconduct at Amazon on Sept. 22, 2022. The inquiry found that Amazon warehouses in Moreno Valley and Redlands violated state Assembly Bill 701, also known as California's Warehouse Quotas Law. As a result, the e-commerce giant must pay a $5,901,700 citation.

Under the state law enacted in 2021, warehouse employers must provide employees written notice of any quotas they are required to meet, including the number of tasks they must perform per hour and any discipline that could come from not meeting the numbers.

The law places limits on quotas that prevent meal or rest periods, use of bathroom facilities, or compliance with occupational health and safety laws.

A quota may be illegal if it is not disclosed to workers or precludes employees from exercising these statutory rights, according to García-Brower, who held a news conference Tuesday in Ontario to announce the citation.

The commissioner claimed Amazon used an illegal "peer-to-peer evaluation system" instead of following state law.

"The peer-to-peer system that Amazon was using in these two warehouses is exactly the kind of system that the Warehouse Quotas law was put in place to prevent. Undisclosed quotas expose workers to increased pressure to work faster and can lead to higher injury rates and other violations by forcing workers to skip breaks," García-Brower said.

The commissioner’s office found 59,017 violations of AB 701 that occurred from October 20, 2023, to March 9, 2024, at the two Inland Empire warehouses. The resulting citations include penalties of more than $1.2 million at the Redlands warehouse and nearly $4.7 million at the Moreno Valley facility.

Amazon is appealing the state's findings, according to an emailed statement from company spokesperson Maureen Lynch Vogel. The commissioner's office is expected to defend the appeal.

"We disagree with the allegations made in the citations and have appealed," Vogel said. "The truth is, we don’t have fixed quotas. At Amazon, individual performance is evaluated over a long period of time, in relation to how the entire site’s team is performing. Employees can — and are encouraged to — review their performance whenever they wish. They can always talk to a manager if they’re having trouble finding the information."

Vogel referred Patch to an Amazon blog post about the workplace environment at the company's fulfillment centers.

"Like any business, we have performance expectations for all of our teams, but these expectations are based on multiple factors including the performance of the entire team, site wide," the post reads. "Our approach ensures everyone is on equal footing and their performance evaluation is insulated from things outside of employees’ control — like changes in the business, inventory, freight mix, or seasonal impacts. Our employees can see their own performance at any time and can talk to their manager if they’re having trouble finding the information. This way, if there is ever an instance where an employee may be struggling, we can work with them to understand their challenges, and provide them additional training or coaching to help them be successful."

Amazon has faced years of scrutiny over working conditions inside Inland Empire warehouses.

During Tuesday's news conference, García-Brower said Amazon was not singled out.

"We are not playing the game of gotcha here," according to García-Brower, who encouraged workers to speak up if they suspect on-the-job wrongdoing.

"It is so important for workers to come together, understand it is the bad-faith employer who wants you to feel isolated and alone and unfamiliar with your rights," she said.