APG calls on Amazon to show results of Covid approach on worker safety

Published on: 17 December 2020

APG co-leads a shareholder proposal calling on Amazon to release details on efforts to protect workers during the Covid-19 pandemic. The proposal follows an independent report that found Amazon is understating the impact of its practices on health and safety, and some of its warehouses were Covid hotspots.

 

APG co-files the proposal on behalf of its pension fund clients, together with the New York City pension funds. The proposal follows the Committee’s failure to respond to a similar request from the major shareholders in May and will be subject to a shareholder vote at Amazon’s 2021 annual meeting if the Committee again fails to respond.

 

Amazon previously announced it was investing billions in the safety and health of its workforce.

The investors ask Amazon to demonstrate with hard data that investments in worker health and safety measures are genuinely keeping workers healthy and safe. “APG wants to understand how effective these initiatives have been”, says Anna Pot, Head of Responsible Investments Americas at APG Asset Management. “Is it working? Are employees actually safe?”

 

American tech company Amazon is a global leader in e-commerce. The issues addressed in the proposal have arisen amid a year in which consumers, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, have increasingly relied upon online orders for their day-to-day needs.

 

Read the press release.