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Warehouse workers at California takes a step closer to the possibility of peeing in peace. Yesterday, the state Senate voted 26-11 to pass AB 701, a bill that directly targets Amazon and other warehousing companies that track worker productivity. The bill would prevent employers from accounting for compliance with health and safety laws – and yes, bathroom breaks – against the productive time of warehouse workers, which is increasingly governed by algorithms. The bill, which organizers call the country’s first to address the future of algorithmic work, is now on its way to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office for signature.
Although some observers expect Newsom to sign the bill given his record on other worker-friendly legislation, such as AB 5, he has so far been silent on AB 701. Asked about his intentions, Newsom’s office objected, saying only: will be assessed on his merits when he reaches the governor’s office. (The governor is currently postponing a recall election, which takes place on September 14.)
The passage of AB 701 was good news for advocates like Yesenia Barerra, a former Amazon seasonal worker who traveled to Sacramento to campaign for the bill, helping set up a fake channel assembly on the steps of the state capital. Barrera occupied the company’s distribution center in Rialto, Calif., For five months until her layoff in 2019. When she was hired, she had not realized the rigidity of the productivity system nor the scope of Amazon’s camera and barcode based employee tracking matrix. . She assumed that only lazy people were made redundant.
During a hectic shift, Barrera’s barcode scanning gun got stuck under boxes on the conveyor belt. As more boxes moved along the line, she struggled to dislodge the weapon. Eventually she pulled it off, but he hit her in the face, injuring her eye, and she momentarily saw black. A few minutes later, her supervisor materialized to ask her why she had stopped scanning. “I thought, how did she know I wasn’t scanning?” She wasn’t around. At an on-site clinic, she says she was given a damp paper towel and ibuprofen, then told to return to work. “My manager said, I saw you take ibuprofen. Everything will be fine, ”Barrera recalls. In the midst of her own vision crisis, she became acutely aware that she was under the constant watch of an all-seeing eye.
Shortly thereafter, Barrera was drafted by another manager for Too Many “Time Off Tasks,” Amazon’s system for tracking employee productivity. More than five minutes without a barcode scanner set the TOT clock, whether that time was spent using the bathroom, wiping down a workstation, fooling around, or just taking a break. (In June, Amazon revised the system, averaging the TOT over a longer period.) Too much TOT prompted a write-off, and ultimately a termination. “Sometimes we would chat and the girls would say, I’m on my period and I’m getting chores off,” Barrera says. She found out that she had been fired when she showed up for her next scheduled shift and her badge was not working. (Amazon did not respond to requests for comment on Barrera’s story or anything else related to AB 701.)
AB 701 would be a game-changer for workers like Barrera. The bill requires employers to disclose productivity quotas to workers when they are hired, as well as any penalties for non-compliance. Toilet trips do not count as time off, nor do health and safety measures permitted by law, such as stretching or disinfecting a workstation. (“Travel” is the key word. Many warehouses are so spacious that a walk to and from the bathroom can take up to 10 to 15 minutes. Eight if you’re jogging, Barrera says.) That works out. also gives workers the right to request 90 days’ worth of their own productivity figures and grants the state labor commissioner access to data on quotas and injury rates. If an employer does not comply, an employee can sue under a state law called the Private Attorney Generals Act.
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