Working in a New Jersey warehouse often involves heavy lifting and long days spent on your feet. While the general nature of warehouse work makes it dangerous, research shows that something else is a major contributor to your injury risk when working in a warehouse: the pace of work seen there.
According to Business Insider, a review of injury rates at certain American warehouses shows a direct correlation between how fast employees must work and how prone they are to suffering work-related injuries. The injury rate exacerbated by work pace is especially high at warehouses owned by one warehouse employer, in particular. This raises questions about what those who work for that employer might do to protect themselves on the job.
How work pace impacts injury rates
Workplace inspection data shows that the more than 750,000 workers employed by the warehouse employer that demands a fast pace of work face injury risks some call “off the charts.” The risk of muscle and joint injuries is especially high in these work environments. Studies show that serious injury rates in warehouses operated by the employer requiring a fast pace of work are twice as likely to suffer serious injuries than warehouse workers employed by different companies.
What federal regulators are doing to protect workers
Injury rates at warehouses operated by the warehouse employer have become so high that federal regulators have taken notice and launched a formal investigation into workplace safety. Some workers employed by the warehouse employer report their supervisors telling them to slow down when they voice concerns about work pace, only to then chastise them for not completing work fast enough.
Whether the investigation is going to lead to new safety regulations in American warehouses is not yet known.