An Amazon employee died at the company’s Troutdale, Oregon warehouse last week, with reports indicating the worker collapsed on the floor and lay dead as colleagues continued working around him, raising fresh questions about safety conditions at the company’s fulfilment centres.
Amazon spokesperson Sam Stephenson confirmed the death. “We’re deeply saddened by the passing of a member of our team, and our thoughts and deepest sympathies are with their loved ones during this difficult time,” Stephenson said. The company said it had been in contact with the worker’s family, provided onsite grief counsellors at the PDX9 facility, and acknowledged the assistance of the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Department and local emergency medical services. Employees were sent home early and paid for the remainder of their shift following the incident, and the night shift was cancelled with affected workers also receiving pay.
According to a report from the Western Edge, an independent investigative outlet covering the Pacific Northwest, the worker collapsed on the warehouse floor while employees continued their work around him. Workers posting on a Reddit forum for Amazon fulfilment centre employees, several of whom claimed to work at PDX9, said the building had become unusually hot after soundproof curtains were installed, restricting airflow. They speculated the heat may have contributed to the death, given the physical demands of fulfilment centre work. The Western Edge reported that employees noticed the building was cooler when they returned to work the following day.
Amazon said Oregon’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration determined the incident to be non-work related.
The PDX9 warehouse has a documented history of safety concerns. A 2018 investigation by Reveal, an investigative journalism outlet, found that 26% of employees at the facility had sustained injuries. A report based on 2024 OSHA data found that Amazon’s fulfilment centres report serious injuries at a rate more than twice the warehouse industry average. Federal investigators have previously alleged that Amazon manipulated safety data and failed to properly document workplace injuries, and the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York is conducting an ongoing investigation into workplace safety at the company’s warehouses.
Amazon said it has seen a 43% reduction in its global recordable incident rate since 2019 and has invested more than $2.5 billion in safety improvements over that period, including hundreds of millions of dollars in 2026 alone.
