Retail giant faces legal challenge over delayed injury report
Ontario’s Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) is seeking a steeper penalty against Amazon after a court imposed a $30,000 fine on the company for failing to report a warehouse injury in a timely manner.
According to a report from The Globe and Mail, the WSIB initially sought a $125,000 fine in response to Amazon’s months-long delay in filing an injury claim for a worker at its Brampton, Ont., fulfilment centre. Ontario law requires employers to report workplace injuries to the WSIB within three business days. The regulator is now challenging the fine imposed by a provincial offences court, arguing it does not serve as an adequate deterrent for a company of Amazon’s scale.
WSIB spokesperson Christine Arnott criticized the penalty, calling it a “drop in the bucket” for Amazon. “We need all companies—especially large ones like Amazon—to protect their employees by properly reporting claims. And if they don’t, they need to know they will be penalized harshly,” she said.
The case centres on a worker who injured his back lifting boxes in April 2020. Internal WSIB records, obtained by The Globe and Mail through a Freedom-of-Information request, reveal that Amazon did not notify the board of the injury until September, months after the worker had suffered ongoing pain and taken significant time off work.
Amazon spokesperson Barbara Agrait defended the company’s record, stating that the case was an isolated incident caused by an administrative miscommunication during the pandemic.
“We faithfully report injuries as legally required, and we comply with our legal obligations,” said Agrait. “This case involved one delayed filing due to an administrative miscommunication, at the height of the pandemic when employers everywhere were particularly strained.”
Agrait emphasized that Amazon has since improved its internal reporting procedures and that workplace injuries have decreased by 30% across its global operations.
However, WSIB records indicate that Amazon had been cited multiple times for late or incomplete injury reporting prior to this case. Between 2016 and 2020, the board issued the company more than 30 administrative fines for reporting violations. Investigators also raised concerns about Amazon’s reliance on a Costa Rica-based call centre to handle employee absences, which reportedly contributed to confusion regarding workplace injury claims.
The scrutiny of Amazon’s safety practices follows the company’s decision to abruptly close its Quebec operations in January, affecting nearly 1,900 workers. The move came as Amazon workers in Laval became the first in Canada to successfully unionize, with unionization efforts also underway at several other warehouses in the province.
Amazon and the WSIB are scheduled to appear in court in April to determine whether the company’s penalty will be increased. The maximum fine for a late-reporting offence stands at $500,000 under Ontario law.
