In May of this year, Caes Gruesbeck, a 20-year-old Amazon warehouse worker, died from injuries sustained after he became trapped under machinery at an Amazon distribution center in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, Indiana safety officials issued Amazon with a serious safety citation after a few months of investigation, and fined the company the most it could under Indiana law: $7,000.
The company with a $1.54 trillion market cap didn't even have to pay five figures for the death of a young employee.
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Amazon has faced a lot of backlash in the past for the way its handled employee safety and the little consequences its had to face. The WSJ reported several other instances in Indiana where an Amazon employee was killed at a warehouse, with sanctions ranging from as low as just $2,400 to as high as a measly $28,000.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has filed several cases against the massive e-commerce retailer, but the sheer volume of warehouses of Amazon makes it difficult to create swift action that's strong enough to create major change in the retailer's practice.
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OSHA fines companies $12,741 for serious violations and $124,709 for repeat violations. But there are 22 states — including Indiana — who manage their own programs for health and safety — where the fines could be lower than those prescribed by the OSHA.
Indiana also restricts families from suing for wrongful death in civil court, according to the WSJ report.
Amazon's Maureen Lynch Vogel told the WSJ in an email that Amazon is "always investing in safety and our efforts are working" and the company takes "the safety and health of our employees very seriously."
She also said that Gruesbeck had up-to-date training and required safety equipment and that the the company cooperated notified OSHA and cooperated with the investigation.
TheStreet reached out to Amazon for additional comment but did not receive a response at the time of publishing.
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