Online retail giant Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) has faced a number of labor issues in the U.S. and Europe over the past year or so. Most have been related to pay for warehouse workers, but in two instances the U.S. Department of Labor has launched probes into the deaths of two people at warehouses in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Last week the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) cited the contractor responsible for operating Amazon’s New Jersey facility and four temporary staffing agencies for “serious violations” related to the death of a temporary worker, Ronald Smith, last December. Smith was caught in a conveyor system and crushed to death while sorting packages. Amazon, which owns the facility but contracts for operations and staff, was not cited.

On June 1st, Amazon employee Jody Rhoards died after being crushed between a motorized pallet jack and shelving in a warehouse in Pennsylvania. OSHA has just initiated an investigation into Rhoards’ death.

More than a year ago union workers at two Amazon warehouses in Germany walked off the job demanding that they be paid at mail order and retail wage scales rather than the logistics scale at which they were being paid. Workers struck again last November and more than 600 walked out once more last weekend. Amazon employs about 9,000 warehouse workers in Germany and hires about 14,000 seasonal workers in the country.

Each of the five companies cited by OSHA in Smith’s death in New Jersey faces a fine of $6,000. Amazon was neither cited nor fined in the case.

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