A California labor regulator mentioned on Tuesday that it had fined Amazon almost $6 million for 1000’s of violations of a security legislation that took impact in 2022.

The measure, often called the Warehouse Quotas Regulation, lets workers request written explanations of any productiveness quotas that apply to them, in addition to explanations of any self-discipline they could face in failing to satisfy the quotas.

The state labor commissioner’s workplace mentioned Amazon violated the legislation greater than 59,000 instances at two Southern California warehouses between October and March.

The system that Amazon used within the two warehouses “is strictly the type of system that the Warehouse Quotas Regulation was put in place to forestall,” the labor commissioner, Lilia García-Brower, mentioned in an announcement.

An Amazon spokeswoman mentioned in an announcement that the corporate had appealed the penalties and denied that the corporate used “fastened quotas.” The spokeswoman, Maureen Lynch Vogel, mentioned that “particular person efficiency is evaluated over a protracted time frame, in relation to how your complete web site’s staff is performing,” and that employees can “overview their efficiency each time they want.”

The California legislation additionally proscribes quotas that intervene with workers’ capacity to take state-mandated breaks or use the lavatory, or that forestall employers from following state well being and security legal guidelines.

Specialists have mentioned the legislation was among the many first within the nation to control warehouse quotas which are monitored by algorithms and to require employers to make the quotas clear to employees. The penalties introduced on Tuesday are the biggest issued beneath the legislation.

The labor commissioner’s workplace mentioned its investigation had been assisted by a labor advocacy group, the Warehouse Employee Useful resource Middle, which issued an announcement quoting a employee at one of many penalized Amazon services who described vital strain to hit quotas.

“When you don’t scan sufficient objects you’ll get written up,” mentioned the employee, Carrie Stone. “This occurred to me. I obtained written up for not making price. They mentioned I missed by one level, however I didn’t even know what the goal was.”

Different Amazon employees raised related issues whereas the Legislature debated the invoice in 2021, and research by labor advocacy teams have proven that Amazon has considerably increased charges of significant harm than different warehouse employers, like Walmart.

The federal Occupational Security and Well being Administration has cited Amazon a number of instances lately for exposing workers to ergonomic injuries and over record-keeping for such accidents, and the Justice Division is investigating whether or not the corporate made false representations about its security report when making use of for loans.

Amazon has cited lots of of hundreds of thousands of {dollars}’ value of investments in security enhancements lately, together with greater than $300 million in 2021.

Different states, like New York and Washington, have since enacted related legal guidelines, and Senator Edward J. Markey, Democrat of Massachusetts, launched a federal version final month.