The Warehouse Worker Protection Act is a law designed to protect workers in the warehousing and storage, merchant wholesaler, electronic stores, mail-order house, courier and express delivery service industries.
On June 19, 2023, New York enacted the Warehouse Worker Protection Act, a law designed to protect workers in the warehousing and storage, merchant wholesaler, electronic stores, mail-order house, courier and express delivery service industries.
The law requires distribution centers to disclose work speed data to current and former employees to inform them about their job performance and rights in the workplace. The legislation also protects workers from disciplinary action or firing exclusively because of a failure to meet undisclosed speed quotes or quotas that do not allow for proper breaks. Workers are also protected from retaliation for making a complaint because they believe a quota violates their right to proper break time.
The law applies to any employer who directly or indirectly employs or has control over the wages, hours, or working conditions of either 100 or more employees at a single warehouse distribution center or 1000 or more employees at one or more warehouse distribution centers in the State.
Senators Ed Markey (D-MA), Josh Hawley (R-MO), Tina Smith (D-MN), and Bob Casey (D-PA) reintroduced the Warehouse Worker Protection Act in the U.S. Senate with the goal of holding corporations accountable for unsafe working conditions and abusive production quotas.
“Warehouse workers, particularly those at Amazon, have been subjected to grueling production quotas, resulting in some of the highest injury rates in the industry, all while struggling with low pay,” says Teamsters general president Sean M. O’Brien. “Thankfully, putting a stop to these exploitative practices has begun to gain bipartisan momentum in both chambers of Congress. We are grateful to lawmakers from both sides of the aisle for their leadership in supporting this critical piece of legislation. It’s time to pass the Warehouse Worker Protection Act and ensure workers’ safety comes before corporate greed.”
This federal legislation follows years of action by the Teamsters to advance the Warehouse Worker Protection Act in state legislatures. It is now law in California, New York, Oregon, Washington, and Minnesota, and has been introduced in more than a dozen states.
