The New York Times has a story about a bill passed by ther California State Assembly and about to be considered by the state Senate that would "require warehouse employers like Amazon to disclose productivity quotas for workers, whose progress they often track using algorithms."
The bill has been advancing through the state's legislature as critics complain that the accelerated growth seen by e-commerce companies, enabled by warehouse workers who, some say, have been exploited by employers.
The Times writes that the bill "would require warehouse employers like Amazon to disclose productivity quotas for workers, whose progress they often track using algorithms." It also would "prohibit any quota that prevents workers from taking state-mandated breaks or using the bathroom when needed, or that keeps employers from complying with health and safety laws."
According to the Times, "The legislation has drawn intense opposition from business groups, which argue that it would lead to an explosion of costly litigation and that it punishes a whole industry for the perceived excesses of a single employer."
The employer, in this case, is Amazon, which "faces growing scrutiny of its treatment of workers," but has not commented on the specific legislation other than to say that "performance targets are determined based on actual employee performance over a period of time” and that "they take into account the employee’s experience as well as health and safety considerations."
California is ground zero for this legislation because it "plays an outsize role in the e-commerce and distribution industry, both because of its huge economy and status as a tech hub and because it is home to the ports through which much of Amazon’s imported inventory arrives. The Inland Empire region, east of Los Angeles, has one of the highest concentrations of Amazon fulfillment centers in the country."
