Amazon maintains it provides pregnancy-related accommodations to tens of thousands of employees annually
Amazon is facing a class action lawsuit that alleges it systematically denied pregnant employees basic workplace accommodations and fired them when they took medically necessary breaks.
The complaint, filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, accuses Amazon of violating the federal Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) and New York Labour Law.
It was brought by advocacy group A Better Balance and law firm Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel on behalf of four female former workers at Amazon facilities in Rochester and Lancaster, New York.
The complaint alleges Amazon refused to grant pregnant workers accommodations as basic as bathroom breaks, water breaks, and the use of a chair without first demanding a doctor's note, a requirement the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has said is unlawful for such routine requests.
The EEOC classifies these as "predictable assessments," modifications so routine they must be granted without medical documentation in virtually all cases.
When the four plaintiffs took pregnancy-related breaks or missed shifts while awaiting decisions on their requests, Amazon's automated attendance systems deducted hours from their unpaid time off banks, eventually triggering termination warnings and, in each case, dismissal.
One former employee alleged she was...
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