New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) signed a invoice into legislation Wednesday that goals to crack down on stringent warehouse work quotas at firms like Amazon.

The legislation, referred to as the Warehouse Employee Safety Act, requires distribution facilities to reveal work pace knowledge to their staff so that they higher perceive their productiveness fee and the corporate’s expectations. It additionally bars firms from firing staff as a result of they failed to satisfy quotas that weren’t clear or didn’t permit sufficient time for relaxation and loo breaks.

The legislation applies to any firm with a big distribution middle within the state, however the obvious goal is Amazon. The Seattle-based on-line retail large is the most important employer of warehouse staff within the nation. Staff have lengthy complained about the pressure to “make rate” and keep away from self-discipline as they decide, pack and ship orders to clients.

Kelly Nantel, an Amazon spokesperson, stated in an announcement that the invoice was “primarily based on a misunderstanding of our enterprise efficiency metrics.”

“Amazon doesn’t have fastened quotas at our amenities. As an alternative, we assess efficiency primarily based on secure and achievable expectations and bear in mind time and tenure, peer efficiency, and adherence to secure work practices,” Nantel stated.

Hochul stated in a statement that she was proud to be signing the invoice into legislation simply forward of the vacations, the busiest interval of the yr for a lot of warehouses as retailers like Amazon fill a crush of orders.

“Each employee in New York state deserves to be handled with equity, dignity and respect,” Hochul stated.

The New York legislation mirrors another bill signed into legislation in California final yr. That laws was the primary of its type within the nation to be explicitly geared toward warehouse work quotas.

The brand new legislation in New York had the help of the Amazon Labor Union, which shaped the primary Amazon union within the U.S. on Staten Island earlier this yr, and the Retail, Wholesale and Division Retailer Union, a New York-based union that has tried to arrange an Amazon facility in Alabama.

A current evaluation from the union coalition referred to as the Middle for Strategic Organizing discovered that Amazon’s harm fee was twice as high as different non-Amazon warehouses. Final week the Occupational Security and Well being Administration (OSHA) introduced that it was issuing citations to a number of Amazon amenities for failing to correctly document accidents and report them to OSHA.

These OSHA inspections took place attributable to a referral from the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace for the Southern District of New York, which is investigating office security practices on the firm.

State Sen. Jessica Ramos, who sponsored the New York invoice, referred to as it “step one in addressing rampant harm in a rapidly rising job sector.”

“Now we have made certain that firms like Amazon and UPS can’t wring all of the income they will out of their staff, leaving the employees to take care of their accidents,” Ramos stated in an announcement.

New York lawmakers are additionally pursuing a new bill to finish “at-will” employment for a lot of staff. To fireplace a employee, an employer might want to exhibit “simply trigger,” resembling employee misconduct or the financial want for layoffs. An analogous legislation is already in impact for fast-food staff in New York Metropolis.

This story has been up to date with remark from Amazon.