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A class action lawsuit recently removed to federal court accuses Amazon of discriminating against older and disabled workers by refusing accommodations and making it hard for these employees to work.
According to the Amazon discrimination class action, many employees hired between February 2015 and February 2019 were hired as “white badge” employees that worked on a temporary, part time, or seasonal basis.
The goal of these employees was to achieve “blue badge” status and secure a permanent position with the company, the Amazon class action states.
However, Amazon allegedly discriminated against white badge employees who were older, injured, or disabled which made it difficult or impossible to reach blue badge status.
The Amazon employee class action lawsuit claims that the source of the discrimination is a “points” system utilized by Amazon.
Under this system, being late or missing work would accrue a full or half point if workers had not accrued sick days. Even if workers missed their shift or were late due to work-related injuries or as a part of their medical leave, Amazon allegedly hit them with penalties in the form of points.
The Amazon class action states that eventually, older and disabled individuals accrue enough points to be terminated.
Plaintiffs Samille R. Johnson, Marie C. Leach, Darius Boyd, and Hussam Aljawad claim that they experienced this issue and that they were wrongfully terminated.
Absences and late instances were allegedly supposed to be coded differently within Amazon’s attendance system if they were in connection with medical leave or other accommodations. However, the massive company reportedly miscoded these instances on purpose in an attempt to discriminate against older and injured employees.
The Amazon age discrimination class action lawsuit claims that these actions were an attempt to “thin the herd” of workers that Amazon believed to be substandard and bad for production rates.
“The net effect of Defendants’ policies and practices insure that only employees who are demonstrably strong, fit, who are not injured and not disabled and able to maintain Defendants’ demanding production quotas, and who don’t accrue ‘points’ as described herein, are able to obtain a blue badge and permanent employment,” the plaintiffs claim in their Amazon class action lawsuit.
“Thus, the Plaintiffs and Class Members were/are consistently denied the same conditions and benefits and opportunities of employment as those employees who are not injured or who do not suffer from disabling medical condition or impairment.”
The plaintiffs seek to represent a subclass of current and former Amazon employees over the age of 40 who were discriminated against due to their age within the last four years.
They also seek to represent another subclass of former and current employees who suffered from adverse employment action (points, discrimination, retaliation, termination, etc.) due to a work related injury and/or a disability.
The Amazon discrimination class action lawsuit seeks declaratory relief, restitution, compensatory damages, court costs, and attorneys’ fees.
The Amazon employees are represented by Jacob Whitehead and Nicole Jacobsen of Whitehead Employment Law.
The Amazon Age Discrimination Class Action Lawsuit is Johnson, et al. v. Amazon.com Services Inc., et al., Case No. 8:19-cv-00711, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.
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19 thoughts onAmazon Class Action Says Company ‘Thins the Herd’ with Age Bias
I’m 63. Worked as a mailman for just over a year. Quit. Then interviewed for Amazon delivery. Was denied a 2nd interview. No reason. I had already delivered to every home as a postman. So, it could not have been a lack of experience. What else?
Was recently terminated, yet it stated that I voluntarily resigned!!! In addition, have been harassed, retaliated against, has insurance and disability payments withheld due to the local and corporate incompetence. Amazon dropped the rep from the DOL out of a post-termination conversation because they did not want a federal employee hear the reason for the retaliatory actions done. Filled several appeals, to be rejected, without explanation, has accommodations improperly inputted and executed for personal file, denial of access from personnel and medical documents until weeks later, and COBRA docs sent after 45 day period. They need to acknowledge their fault and pay. SIGN…ME..
UP!!
I am 72 and was terminated by Amazon for non attendance.
From the first week of my employment till my last week I was hurassed and publicly humiliated by my shift hr. I daughter a loa because of a health issue that took three months to recover from. I returned to work and suffered a bad reaction to a medication.
During this time I tried to achieve the standards set up by Amazon leadership. I then contacted a virus . In order to remain an employee I took suggested bro. The next day I was terminated . A few days after that I received an email asking that I open a loa case. I worked at the mills river N C. Facility. Please advise I can offer more details that point to the Amazon weed out procedure.
William lollis
Amazon has made me jump through constant hoops due to my accommodation. Currently they are telling me it doesn’t exist, but then I call the ERC number and my case is open. I have an Accommodation for my heart issues. I was told today I could not take a break due to having an accommodation, and they gave me two options. 1) Stay at work without my accommodation, to ultimately end up in an ambulance, or 2) Take a 5 day unpaid leave in order to open a new case. I did not want to end up in the hospital so I took the leave only to get ahold of the ERC number again to find out that my accommodation is in place but the case manager (who’s email no longer exists by the way), is “working on it”.
They also took me out of SLAM due to me leaving early because of my accommodation, AND put me in pack even though my doctor specifically said in a note to avoid putting me in pack due to my heartrate getting too high. Whenever I ask to be moved to something else they say “okay we’ll get around to it” and never do.
Ive been working with Amazon for over 6 months and have never had anyone even acknowledge my accommodation until my manager Bree came along. However, she is not an ops manager, therefore has no power.
I just had this happen to me at the SLC sort center… They let the new young people stand around while forcing us 3 slightly over 50 women to run laps around the warehouse loaded up with thousands of pounds of pallets on our hand held pallet jack.. Just for the fun of it.. It wasnt a job function of the position.. I had no prior injuries but it hurt my wrist and foot and shoulder.. Beat up so bad i couldnt get out of bed for a week…
I’m a Amazon employee. been here 1 yr. Recently told in my interview for Area Manager, “When did you begin your career(prior job) ?” Response: “I started in 1996 and retired in 2016.” Interviewer: “1996?? I was just graduating high school then!” I was denied the promotion I believe due to age discrimination. Teric405@gmail.com