New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a lawsuit against Amazonlast night for failing to adequately protect its workers during the pandemic and for misbehaving with employees who had expressed concerns about the situation.
The complaint, filed in New York Supreme Court, focuses on “flagrant violations of health and safety” at two Amazon facilities in New York: a warehouse in Staten Island and a delivery warehouse in Queens. According to the complaint, Amazon failed to adequately care for its employees at those facilities by failing to properly clean the buildings and conduct contact tracing of individuals known to be infected with COVID-19.
The lawsuit also accuses Amazon of attempting to cover up working conditions and of retaliating against workers who began to make complaints and inform both Amazon management and government agencies and the media.
Some of the examples cited in the lawsuit include not properly ventilating the premises, as required by the state, and not contacting sick employees for contact tracing.
In connection with the retaliation mentioned above, it appears that Amazon fired an employee who raised concerns about safety worker and led a protest in the parking lot of the Staten Island facility.
“Amazon’s extreme profits and growth rate came at the expense of the lives, health, and safety of its employees,” the state alleges in its lawsuit.
Last week, Amazon sued the New York Attorney General in a preemptive lawsuit, seeking to block her from charging the company. The company argued that workplace safety is a federal issue and asked the court to force James to declare that she did not have the authority to regulate workplace safety during the pandemic or investigate allegations of the company against employees. Amazon argued that the safety measures it has taken “far exceed what is required by law” and cited a surprise inspection by the Office of the Sheriff of the City of New York that reached the same conclusion.
Source: Forbes
