Amazon’s Failure to Protect Workers from COVID-19 Disproportionately Harmed Black, Latino, Immigrant Employees, Lawsuit Alleges [UPDATE]

New to ClassAction.org? Read our Newswire Disclaimer

Amazon’s failure to implement aggressive policies and procedures at its fulfillment centers to contain the spread of the coronavirus disproportionately and discriminatorily harmed minority workers, a proposed class action lawsuit alleges.

The plaintiff, an African American and former management associate, further alleges that while Amazon claimed his March 2020 termination was linked to him breaking a company-imposed quarantine, the real reason for his firing was that he led a public demonstration in response to the defendant’s allegedly disparate treatment of Caucasian management employees and predominantly minority fulfillment center workers amid the pandemic.

“During this rally, [the plaintiff] opposed practices which discriminated against minority workers and immigrants by subjecting them to inferior terms and conditions of employment due to their race/ethnicity,” the 10-page complaint says. “Within two hours of the public demonstration, Amazon terminated [the plaintiff], claiming that he was violating its quarantine order and thereby jeopardizing the health and safety of other employees.”

According to the complaint, a worker with whom the plaintiff had close contact tested positive for COVID-19 on March 24. Upon learning of the worker’s COVID-19 diagnosis, Amazon “did not issue a directive to quarantine workers with whom she had contact,” the lawsuit says. On March 25, the plaintiff came to work and was not advised of any quarantine order for himself or others with whom the COVID-positive worker had close contact, the suit claims.

On the same day, the plaintiff spoke with “higher level managers” and Amazon’s HR department in search of clarity for workers who’d requested to be placed in quarantine due to their known exposure to COVID-19, the case says. Three days later, on March 28, the plaintiff was informed by a senior operations manager that he was to be quarantined with pay yet received “no specific instructions or duration” for the measure, per the suit. 

Upon his co-worker’s initial positive COVID-19 diagnosis, however, the plaintiff “became alarmed that Amazon was not following basic precautions” and seemingly endangering distribution center workers and their families, according to the complaint. As the lawsuit tells it, the plaintiff, between March 25 and 28, served as an intermediary between the company and its workers, many of whom “felt that management was unresponsive to their concerns.” 

The plaintiff returned to the fulfillment center on March 30 to lead 60 workers in a demonstration targeting Amazon’s failure to implement a number of measures to protect against the spread of the coronavirus, such as taking employees’ temperatures before allowing them to work, properly disinfecting and sanitizing, providing personal protection equipment and hand sanitizer, and enforcing social distancing within the facility, the lawsuit says. According to the complaint, the plaintiff demanded Amazon close down the facility until it could be deep cleaned and sanitized because he felt he “had a responsibility to raise with management its delinquent response to the emerging pandemic.” Moreover, the plaintiff believed Amazon management “was indifferent to the health, welfare and survival of his subordinates, co-workers and their families because the large majority of them were African-Americans, Latinos or immigrants,” the lawsuit says.

According to the suit, the plaintiff’s concern grew when he reportedly learned that Amazon was intentionally paying more mind to “the health and safety of managers who, as a group, were disproportionately Caucasian” in comparison to fulfillment center workers. The plaintiff was among a group of minority workers who brought their health and safety concerns to management who allegedly “repelled” the workers, demonstrating no concern for their health or welfare, the suit says. 

As the lawsuit tells it, when the plaintiff again met with management, this time with a group that included Caucasian workers, they “appeared far more receptive to the group’s health and safety-related concerns.” 

Within two hours of the plaintiff’s demonstration, he was fired on the pretext that he had violated Amazon’s quarantine order, the suit says. Thereafter, an Amazon spokesperson relayed that company managers had repeatedly warned the plaintiff not to come to work and to maintain social distancing, asserting after his termination that he “violated both edicts,” per the case. 

The lawsuit contends, however, that Amazon’s statements about the plaintiff’s firing were outright lies: 

“[Amazon’s] statements were lies; while [the plaintiff] had been at the workplace for several days trying fruitlessly to get the company to respond to the health and safety needs of its overwhelmingly minority work force, Amazon managers did not direct him to leave the premises until March 28 nor advise him of any policy dealing with social distancing.” 

According to the complaint, Amazon’s motives for firing the plaintiff became clearer a few days later when the defendant’s general counsel, in a memo to CEO Jeff Bezos, characterized the plaintiff as “not smart or articulate” and suggested Amazon “make him the face of the workers criticizing its response to the pandemic.”

“He suggested that [the plaintiff] was an easy target to defeat,” the case reads.

The lawsuit argues that the memo to Bezos is evidence enough that Amazon executives have “perpetuated the company’s pervasive discriminatory animus against its minority workers.” In all, Amazon’s reaction to the coronavirus pandemic has subjected minority workers to “health threats to which Amazon did not subject its primarily Caucasian management staff,” the case alleges.

The suit charges that Amazon’s failure to provide personal protective equipment to its predominantly minority fulfillment center workforce amounts to the subjugation of the workers to “inferior terms and conditions of employment,” with the employees’ health and welfare discriminatorily endangered on account of their race and/or national origin.

ClassAction.org’s coverage of COVID-19 litigation can be found here and over on our Newswire.

Sign up for ClassAction.org’s newsletter here.