Amazon’s warehouses are subjecting pregnant women and disabled workers to harsh physical work conditions that have improperly exposed them to injury, Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration claimed on Wednesday.
The administrative complaint by the New York State Division of Human Rights alleges that Amazon has forced pregnant women to lift heavy packages instead of giving them lighter ones and has denied requests from disabled workers that would allow them to continue working, claiming that they didn’t submit “appropriate” medical documentation.
Amazon, which operates 39 facilities in New York that employ 39,000 workers, has forced these employees to take unpaid leaves of absence instead of meeting requests for special accommodations, the complaint alleges.
In one instance, a pregnant worker’s manager refused her request not to lift packages weighing over 25 pounds – even after her request had been approved by the company’s in-house “accommodation consultants,” according to the complaint.
The worker suffered an injury after she continued to lift heavy packages. As a result, she required a further accommodation, but Amazon denied that request as well and forced her to take indefinite unpaid leave, the complaint alleges.
Amazon managers repeatedly ignored recommendations from the company’s “accommodation consultants,” who in turn never challenged these brushoffs, according to the complaint. It also claims workers were approved for reduced work schedules for medical reasons and then were denied by their supervisors who simply said no “without offering any explanation.”
The complaint comes amid a rash of such allegations by the company’s workers, union leaders and politicos who have taken the company to task for creating an unforgiving workplace environment. Amazon’s billionaire founder Jeff Bezos vowed to do better by the company’s workforce in his final letter to shareholders last year.
The complaint is administrative rather than civil or criminal but there will be a formal investigation, and depending on the results there may be fines levied or other actions taken, a spokesperson for the governor said.
After a determination is made, it could be appealed to the state court system.
“We’re surprised by the governor’s announcement this morning because we’ve been cooperating and working closely with her investigator on this matter and had no indication a complaint was coming,” said Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel. “Since we haven’t received the complaint ourselves yet, we’re not in a position to comment further.”
“New York has the strongest worker protections in the nation and was one of the first to have protections for workers who are pregnant and those with disabilities,” Hochul said in a statement. “Working men and women are the backbone of New York and we will continue to take a stand against any injustice they face.”
Last year, six Democratic senators called on the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to investigate how Amazon treats pregnant warehouse workers.
“While we don’t always get it right with a workforce of over 1.6 million people, we work diligently to offer the best available options to accommodate individual situations,” Nantel said.
