A New York federal choose has ordered Amazon to adjust to a subpoena from a U.S. civil rights company investigating claims that the net retailer discriminated towards pregnant warehouse staff.
U.S. District Choose Lorna Schofield in Manhattan late Thursday rejected Amazon’s claims that the Equal Employment Alternative Fee (EEOC) subpoena was too broad and sought irrelevant info.
The EEOC is searching for information on requests that pregnant staff at 5 U.S. warehouses made for lodging reminiscent of limits on heavy lifting and extra breaks, and whether or not Amazon granted or denied them.
Amazon spokesperson Sam Stephenson mentioned the corporate has cooperated with the investigation because it started three years in the past and disagreed with the EEOC’s characterization of its conduct. Amazon is happy with the advantages and day without work it gives to staff who’re pregnant or whose companions have given start, he mentioned.
“We take this problem very significantly and stay up for displaying why the EEOC’s issues are unfounded,” Stephenson mentioned in an announcement.
The fee’s probe was prompted by complaints from 5 ladies who say they confronted being pregnant discrimination whereas working at Amazon warehouses in New Jersey, Connecticut, North Carolina, and California.
Amazon mentioned it has offered the EEOC with about 370,000 pages of information in response to the subpoena, however not within the particular format requested by the company.
Schofield in her ruling mentioned the knowledge sought within the subpoenas was essential for the EEOC to find out whether or not Amazon engaged in unlawful discrimination. The choose gave Amazon till Aug. 9 to adjust to the subpoena.
An EEOC spokesman declined to remark.
In 2022, a New York state company filed an administrative criticism accusing Amazon of requiring pregnant and disabled warehouse staff to take unpaid leaves of absence, even when they had been able to working, as an alternative of offering lodging. That case is pending.
Amazon has denied wrongdoing and mentioned it strives to help it staff, however acknowledged in an announcement responding to the New York criticism that “we don’t at all times get it proper.”
The EEOC issued a subpoena final 12 months searching for 5 classes of knowledge, together with information on lodging Amazon offered to warehouse staff with disabilities. On the time, federal regulation solely required firms to offer the identical lodging to pregnant staff that they gave to staff with disabilities.
A regulation handed later final 12 months mandates that employers accommodate staff’ pregnancies no matter how they deal with staff with disabilities.
