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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 have an approved work accommodation thst they purposely ignored. Causing serious injury to my arm. They have proof my operations manager agreed to add back upt (unplanned time points) back but it’s been hell getting him to do it. I’m in leave and they keep placing upt points on file. They are trying to get me to quit due to injury or using the point system method
I converted from integrity to amazon on December 15 2019. I was supposed to receive my money on the 27th of December 2019 my first paycheck. I didn’t have my direct deposit set up and went to Hr numerous times to get it fixed. It was not updated until the 11th of January 2020 a day after the second paycheck was administered to others. I do not have a statement for my first paycheck and payroll tried to say I didn’t work. The second paycheck I have a statement for but never received any money. I was told it was coming in the mail, nothing came. Complained again we called payroll and this time I was able to activate my pay card as well. It was funded with 625 on it which I assume was for my first paycheck on the January 17 2020. It had been 23 days from my first pay period before I received part of my wages. It has been an entire month of stress, time taken, energy, and my money is running out. Idk what to do now. In the state of Delaware you are supposed to give an employer 7 days after the pay period to give you your owed wages. Mine took 23 days. I still have not gotten all my money. I tried to collect as much proof as I could. I believe I may have a case but I have never done this before and need help.
I converted from integrity to amazon on December 15 2019. I was supposed to receive my money on the 27th of December 2019 my first paycheck. I didn’t have my direct deposit set up and went to Hr numerous times to get it fixed. It was not updated until the 11th of January 2020 a day after the second paycheck was administered to others. I do not have a statement for my first paycheck and payroll tried to say I didn’t work. The second paycheck I have a statement for but never received any money. I was told it was coming in the mail, nothing came. Complained again we called payroll and this time I was able to activate my pay card as well. It was funded with 625 on it which I assume was for my first paycheck on the January 17 2020. It had been 23 days from my first pay period before I received part of my wages. It has been an entire month of stress, time taken, energy, and my money is running out. Idk what to do now. In the state of Delaware you are supposed to give an employer 7 days after the pay period to give you your owed wages. Mine took 23 days. I still have not gotten all my money.
Please add me.
Please add me ASAP… I was wrongfully terminated as an OMR after disagreeing with the treatment to of current employees regarding work related injuries and I had just gone on FMLA for my wife being chronically ill.
I’m 55, went back to college, and earned a second degree in Network & Communications Management. Also, I’m a combat Veteran with disabilities. I recently applied for an IT position with Amazon. From reading these comments and comments on other websites relating to Amazon’s age discrimination, I’d bet 10 to 1 that I never hear from an Amazon recruiter or HR representative!!!
Amazon management should realize that ‘their’ customers’ are the employees.
I’m asking myself, ‘Why would I ever want to work at Amazon?!?!?!?!’
Please contact me at the email below. Was injured, denied treatment via worker’s compensation, not accommodated and then terminated.
Add me I worked there and it was horrible even though I have PTSD, Anxiety, and depression they would not accommodate me
Add me I was a ambassador running a 89 person shift was told directly give them the hardest job so they will quite
I applied for an Amazon-flex driver. At first was told no positions where open. Kept checking the app I downloaded and in 2-3 days was given the ability to apply. I went through all of the application process and then had to submit a picture of my drivers license. At that point it stopped me from filling out the rest of the application, stating the drivers license is under review. So I emailed their support team and asked how long before this process would take, sense the application was under a time limit to be filled out and excepted. The email I got back from support stated “Your driver’s license verification is currently in progress. You will be notified when we reach a decision within 3 business days. No further action is required on your part. “ That was on June 21, 2020 at 7:22 pm (Sunday).
Then at 10:11 pm June 21, 2020, I get an email stating “Thank You for successfully uploading images of your driver’s license. Amazon flex has validated your account. You do not need to take further action at this time.
In which time my ability to move on to the next step was halted, which would have been a background check and the final step in the process.
So you understand I am 60 years old and this was a Sunday (non-business day) and within less than 3 hours I was told I was not able to continue the on boarding process.
Just wondering if there is anything that can be done about this?
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…
Add me as well
Please add me.