(NEW YORK) — The Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited Amazon on Wednesday for failing to furnish a place of employment that was free from recognized hazards that were causing serious physical harm to employees.

This is the second set of OSHA citations issued after referrals from federal prosecutors in New York who have been investigating workplace complaints.

The new citations said employees at three Amazon facilities were exposed to ergonomic hazards, which put them at high risk for lower back injuries and other musculoskeletal disorders.

They resulted from the high frequency with which workers are required to lift packages and other items; the heavy weight of the items; awkward postures, such as twisting, bending, and long reaches while lifting; and long hours required to complete assigned tasks, OSHA said.

“Amazon became the nation’s largest online retailer thanks, in no small part, to the hundreds of thousands of Americans who work each year in Amazon’s massive warehouses. Each of these workers has the right to a place of work free from severe safety hazards,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement Wednesday.

Amazon told ABC News it intends to appeal.

“We take the safety and health of our employees very seriously, and we strongly disagree with these allegations and intend to appeal. We’ve cooperated fully, and the government’s allegations don’t reflect the reality of safety at our sites,” Kelly Nantel, Amazon spokesperson, told ABC News. “Over the last several months, we’ve demonstrated the extent to which we work every day to mitigate risk and protect our people, and our publicly available data show we’ve reduced injury rates nearly 15% between 2019 and 2021. What’s more, the vast majority of our employees tell us they feel our workplace is safe.”

The cited warehouses are located in New Windsor, New York; Waukegan, Illinois, and Deltona, Florida. Additionally, at the Deltona, Florida, warehouse, OSHA also cited Amazon for exposing workers to the hazard of being struck by falling boxes with merchandise.

Amazon faces a total of $60,269 in proposed penalties for these violations, according to OSHA.

These citations arise out of workplace safety inspections at six Amazon warehouses across the country that OSHA began conducting in mid-July and early August of last year. OSHA’s investigation at three facilities — located outside of Albany, New York, Boise, Idaho, and Denver, Colorado — is ongoing.

“Each of these inspections found work processes that were designed for speed but not safety, and they resulted in serious worker injuries. While Amazon has developed impressive systems to make sure its customers’ orders are shipped efficiently and quickly, the company has failed to show the same level of commitment to protecting the safety and well-being of its workers,” OSHA Assistant Secretary of Labor Douglas L. Parker said.

OSHA cited Amazon in December 2022 for 14 recordkeeping violations as part of the same investigation.

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(NEW YORK) — Microsoft said it will lay off 10,000 employees this year, the latest tech firm to slash jobs as the sector contracts after a pandemic-era boom.

The layoffs will affect nearly 5% of Microsoft’s global workforce, the company said.

“As we saw customers accelerate their digital spend during the pandemic, we’re now seeing them optimize their digital spend to do more with less,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in a memo to employees on Wednesday.

“We’re also seeing organizations in every industry and geography exercise caution as some parts of the world are in a recession and other parts are anticipating one,” he added.

The company said the job cuts, changes to its hardware portfolio and consolidation of its real estate holdings would result in a $1.2 billion charge.

A tech industry downturn – marked by a 33% drop in the Nasdaq last year – has brought job cuts across the sector, including at large firms like Amazon and Facebook-parent Meta.

The layoffs at Microsoft arrive in response to “macroeconomic conditions and changing customer priorities,” the company said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The move follows a wave of job cuts in October that eliminated nearly 1,000 positions.

Shares of Microsoft fell roughly 1% in early trading on Wednesday morning in response to the news.

The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Microsoft employs about 221,000 workers worldwide.

Sales at top tech firms have retreated from the blistering pace attained during the pandemic, when billions across the world were forced into isolation. Customers stuck at home came to rely on delivery services like e-commerce and virtual connections formed through social media and videoconferencing.

Persistent recession fears, rising interest rates and a shift back toward a pre-pandemic lifestyle have bludgeoned the industry, experts say.

Microsoft announced the layoffs on the same day that Amazon began cutting 18,000 workers. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said the company was set for layoffs in a memo to employees earlier this month.

In the memo, Jassy cited an “uncertain economy” as the primary reason behind the job cuts.

Amazon officials are “deeply aware that these role eliminations are difficult for people, and we don’t take these decisions lightly or underestimate how much they might affect the lives of those who are impacted,” Jassy said.

Over the past year, major tech companies have cut hundreds of thousands of jobs. The list of companies that have undertaken layoffs includes Twitter, Lyft, Stripe, Salesforce, Coinbase and Robinhood.

“When I think about this moment in time, the start of 2023, it’s showtime – for our industry and for Microsoft,” Nadella said. “As a company, our success must be aligned to the world’s success.”

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(NEW YORK) — Former President Donald Trump is looking to get back on Facebook.

Attorneys for Trump, who was banned from Facebook after the Jan. 6 insurrection, have written to executives of Meta requesting a meeting to discuss “prompt reinstatement to the platform,” according to a copy of the letter reviewed by ABC News.

The letter, which is addressed to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and two other executives, claims the ban on Trump’s account “has dramatically distorted and inhibited the public discourse,” and represents “a deliberate effort by a private company to silence Mr. Trump’s political voice.”

“Moreover, every day that President Trump’s political voice remains silenced furthers an inappropriate interference in the American political and election process,” the letter states.

The letter does not address the reason Trump was kicked off the platform in the first place — it does, however, note that Trump was allowed back on Twitter. Twitter CEO Elon Musk lifted Trump’s ban on the platform in November after putting the decision up to a poll.

He has not used the account despite being unbanned, and has said he plans to stick with TRUTH Social, the platform he founded after being banned from most social media sites.

Trump was removed from Facebook in January 2021, in the wake of the insurrection, over concerns his posts were inciting violence.

The company later said the removal was set to last for two years, at which point it would come under reassessment.

“We therefore write to request a meeting to discuss President Trump’s prompt reinstatement to the platform,” the letter says.

However, even as Trump announced his run for president in 2024, Facebook said in November it did not plan to reinstate him.

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