A probe from a U.S. Senate committee alleges that Amazon's Prime Day is a "major cause" of injuries at the company's warehouses.

Prime Day 2024 spans July 16-17, featuring discounts on a variety of products on Amazon's website. The company will often log billions of dollars in sales over the course of the two-day discount period, raking in $12.7 billion from Prime Day 2023. But with those sales also comes a higher risk of injuries, "characterized by extremely high volume and intense pressure to work long hours and ignore safety guidelines," according to a Senate labor committee investigation released on July 15. 

“Amazon continues to treat its workers as disposable and with complete contempt for their safety and wellbeing,” said committee chair Senator Bernie Sanders. “That is unacceptable and that has got to change.”

The Senate's probe found that there were 45 injuries for every 100 workers during Prime Day 2019, with warehouse workers telling the committee that Amazon sets "unsustainable" productivity requirements for Prime Day and holiday seasons. In one instance, a worker alleged that they were required to work two 12-hour shifts with only a seven-hour break in between during a peak period. Another claimed that the company had purposefully not included an automatic stop feature on a new conveyor belt installed right before Prime Day.

"In the ensuing weeks, the lack of an automatic stop feature meant 'the belt wouldn’t stop if there was a jam,' and workers had to clear packages while the conveyor belt kept moving, and packages piled up behind and around them," the investigation reads. 

The probe also cited "a documented history" of Amazon failing to correctly report its injuries to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). That includes dozens of federal and state record-keeping violations, where workers with serious injuries were given on-site first aid instead of being referred to doctors, allowing Amazon to not report the injuries to OSHA at all. 

Speaking to CNBC, Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel claimed that the committee's investigation "draws sweeping and inaccurate conclusions based on unverified anecdotes."