New York comptroller asks Amazon for workplace safety info

The comptroller of New York City and Netherlands-based pension asset manager Stichting Pensioenfonds ABP have asked Amazon.com Inc.’s board of directors to release a public report on the company’s efforts to protect workers’ health and safety during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“There is a massive disconnect between what Amazon management says it’s doing to keep workers safe and what those workers are reporting,” Scott Stringer, New York City’s comptroller, said in a statement Thursday. “If Amazon is going to invest in worker health and safety measures, they need to demonstrate with hard data that those measures are keeping workers healthy and safe.”

Mr. Stringer, who represents New York City Pension Funds and ABP said shareholders of Seattle-based Amazon have a “right to transparency,” including details on how the distributor is protecting its workers from coronavirus. The city pension fund — which includes the New York City Employees’ Retirement System, the Teachers Retirement System of the City of New York and the New York City Board of Education Retirement System — and ABP have a combined $6.3 billion invested in Amazon, according to the statement.

More insurance and workers compensation news on the coronavirus crisis here.