For years, white-collar employees at Amazon have accused the company of using opaque “rank-and-yank” performance reviews to periodically cull its workforce. Now a proposed law in the Washington Legislature could make it harder for companies to terminate workers without saying why.
Employees in Washington currently have a right to their personnel records, but the existing law doesn’t specify what needs to be disclosed, and there are no consequences for ignoring requests. The legislation aims to more clearly define employee files and impose penalties on companies that fail to hand them over.
The potential impact of the proposed legislation extends beyond terminations. Workers also need access to their employment records to apply for unemployment insurance and workers compensation or pursue discrimination claims.
“This is ultimately a fairness issue,” said Senator Patty Kuderer, a Bellevue Democrat and employment lawyer who introduced the bill last year. “What goes into a personnel file needs to be accurate, and employees need to be able to check them.”
Senate Bill 5130 is currently stalled, so Kuderer and other backers hope testimony from tech workers in the upcoming legislative session will help them pass the proposal. Among employees who plan to testify is former Amazon drone engineer Pat McGah, who said he was surprised to learn in February that he was among the “least effective” in his group after working at Amazon for 18 months.
McGah, 37, asked why he received the...
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