The lawsuit alleges that the company did not close its facilities for cleaning on learning of worker infections and did not notify workers who had been in contact with infected colleagues. It also says that Amazon failed to give employees enough freedom at work to clean up, practice social detachment and take other preventive measures.
“Throughout the historic pandemic, Amazon has repeatedly and persistently failed to fulfill its obligation to institute reasonable and appropriate measures to protect its workers from the spread of the virus” at its New York facility, which includes a call center on Staten Island and a distribution center in Queens, according to the complaint. “Amazon’s blatant disregard for health and safety requirements has threatened serious illness and serious damage to the thousands of workers at these facilities and represents a substantial and specific continuing danger to public health.”
Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The dispute between Amazon and New York has been brewing for some time. Last week, the company filed a preventive lawsuit, asking a federal court to stop James from using state law to enforce his requests that the company subsidize public transport and hire a health and safety consultant.
Describing James’ requests as “exorbitant demands”, Amazon argued in that document that its existing protections for workers “far exceed what is required by law” and “go well beyond the measures” that the attorney general considered comprehensive. “.
Amazon cited the company’s temperature screening policy, signs advising social distance and scheduling of employee shifts at its Staten Island facilities as some examples of how it went above and beyond. An inspection of the city’s sheriff’s own office, Amazon said, found “absolutely no area of concern”.
Prior to this lawsuit, James found that Amazon fell short of the company’s health and safety standards for deposits.
And other critics at Amazon – including several of its own employees – said the company was slow to deal with the risks that the coronavirus posed to frontline workers.