PC: CNBC

According to CNBC, Amazon’s top executive in charge of workplace health and safety is leaving the business the next month.

According to a statement sent to staff on Monday by John Felton, the chief of operations at Amazon, Heather MacDougall, who joined the business in 2019 from the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission, will leave on October 7.

Felton stated in the note, which CNBC was able to witness, “After building with us for over three years as a vital member of our leadership team, Heather has opted to pursue other possibilities beyond Amazon.” I want to express my gratitude for her numerous contributions and my best wishes for her future endeavours.

The company’s response to the coronavirus, according to employees, was inadequate in protecting them at work, and Amazon has come under intense scrutiny for the injury rates in its warehouses. The corporation promotes speed over safety, which puts employees at a larger risk of harm than competitors, according to complaints from workers, labour groups, and lawmakers. One key driver of the new organising wave at Amazon facilities is workplace safety concerns.

Reports of dangerous working conditions have been refuted by Amazon. The corporation established challenging objectives to lower injuries under MacDougall’s employment, including a target to reduce recordable event rates, an OSHA measurement covering injury and sickness, by half by 2025. Even as labour discontent grew more intense, Amazon pledged to become “Earth’s Best Employer” last year and added it to its list of corporate principles.

Before joining Amazon, MacDougall ran the OSHRC, a federal body tasked with examining occupational health and safety disputes between companies and the Labor Department, for two years. The Obama administration chose her to be the agency’s head in 2013.

To improve Amazon’s reputation for safety, MacDougall also established relationships with prominent safety groups. Amazon and the National Safety Council established a partnership in June 2021 with the goal of lowering the number of sprains and strains experienced by warehouse workers.

MacDougall will be succeeded as head of global workplace health and safety by Becky Gansert, who currently works as vice president of global specialised fulfilment. Gansert will also be in charge of Amazon’s learning and development groups, which are tasked with, among other things, “enhancing the everyday experience” of warehouse and delivery staff.

Becky is uniquely prepared to advance us with both safety and the overall associate experience, according to Felton, who noted that the two are priorities that are intimately interwoven.