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New York Sues Amazon for Weak COVID-19 Response

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Amazon logo on the facade of one of their corporate office buildings located in Silicon Valley-New York Sues Amazon-ss-featured

The Attorney General of New York sues Amazon, the online retail giant over allegations of worker safety. Allegedly, the company failed to provide enough protection for workers during the pandemic. Last Tuesday, Attorney General Letitia James filed suit that Amazon violated labor laws. The company provided a deficient response to the pandemic for its workers.

RELATED: Amazon Hiring 100,000 Workers to Keep Up With Order Demand

New York Sues Amazon

New York’s lawsuit claims that the company failed its workers.  They didn’t close their facilities even after finding out about COVID-19 outbreaks. It also failed to notify workers that might have had contact with infected co-workers. Employees also weren't allowed to decide on their own. This covers matters such as conducting cleanings or practicing social distancing.

“Throughout the historic pandemic, Amazon has repeatedly and persistently failed to comply with its obligation to institute reasonable and adequate measures to protect its workers from the spread of the virus” in its New York City facilities, which include a fulfillment center on Staten Island and a distribution center in Queens, according to the complaint. “Amazon's flagrant disregard for health and safety requirements has threatened serious illness and grave harm to the thousands of workers in these facilities and poses a continued substantial and specific danger to the public health,” it added.

Amazon Disputes the Charges

Amazon disputed the charges, saying that the company does care about its workers. “We care deeply about the health and safety of our employees, as demonstrated in our filing last week, and we don't believe the Attorney General's filing presents an accurate picture of Amazon's industry-leading response to the pandemic,” said Spokesperson Kelly Nantel told CNN Business.

The company anticipated the planned moves by the state. Last week, it filed a preemptive lawsuit before a federal court.  The suit wanted to block James from invoking state law to enforce certain policies. This includes requests for Amazon to subsidize public transit. In addition, James also asked that Amazon hire a health and safety consultant. The company said that James’ demands are exorbitant. In fact, Amazon said that its worker protection programs far exceed legal requirements. Meanwhile, James scoffed at the filing, believing it’s right that New York sues Amazon. It’s “a sad attempt to distract from the facts and shirk accountability for its failures to protect hard-working employees from a deadly virus,” according to the NY Attorney General.

Worker Protection

Amazon pointed to the company’s many COVID-19 policies. They implemented a temperature screening policy and put up signs advising social distancing. In addition, workers at its Staten Island facility work on staggering shifts. This helps reduce employee congestion. According to the company, even the NYC sheriff’s office declared “absolutely no areas of concern” on Amazon’s New York facilities.

However, many critics, including current Amazon workers, said the company acts too slow. For example, temperature screenings didn’t even start at Amazon until reports of worker outbreaks surfaced.

Overwhelming Orders During the Pandemic

Amazon faced criticism last year during the pandemic. Critics allege they didn’t act fast enough to keep workers safe. Amazon Warehouses got inundated with orders in 2020. People opted to shop online instead of going out to buy.

With increased demand came the need for more workers. Social distancing and other measures took second priority over overwhelming orders. As a result, Amazon said that by the fall of last year, nearly 20,000 of its U.S. employees tested or presumed positive.

Watch the Reuters news video reporting that New York’s Attorney General sues Amazon over worker safety:

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13 Comments

13 Comments

  • Carlito Azurin says:

    Insufficient evidence to convict Amazon. Compensate the workers and just start the vaccination.

  • Bob says:

    Now that Trump is no longer available to attack, these liberals are eating their own. I love it.

  • Anonymous says:

    My son had to quit in a different city here in the US due to people not wearing a mask and not adhering to the 6 feet distancing

  • Phil says:

    They should prosecute the Governor of NY for not protecting the elders and ordering a stay in place at rest-homes, then the misinformation of the outcome.

  • james hunt says:

    This is what Democrats and BLM do best deflect to someone else!! Trying to keep Cuomo out of the lime light !HE IS GUILTY OF MURDER!!! To late we know what you are doing, coming after all socialist ,Biden-Harris, Cuomo, McConnell! LOOK OUT SOCIALIST HERE COMES 74,000,000 REAL PEOPLE WHO WERE CALLED “REAL VOTERS” NOW “THE AMERICAN PATRIOT PARTY! THE TABLES HAVE TURNED AND IF YOU THOUGT THE BLM,ANTIFA RIOTS LAST SUMMER WERE SOMETHING YOU HAVE NOT SEEN ANYTHING YET!!!ONLY IT WILL NOT BE BURNING AND LOOTING “FIRE AND FURY” FIGHT,FIGHT,FIGHT!!!!! FOR GOD ,FAMILY, COUNTRY!!!! GO TRUMP IT HAS ONLY JUST BEGUN!!!

  • Jameson says:

    It is amazing, democrats seem to always have their boney little fingers pointing away from themselves towards anyone else. Pathetic.

  • Rivahmitch says:

    Sounds to me as if he CHOSE to quit.

  • William Phillips says:

    You can’t sue just one company. No one was prepared for this and no one fully complied with all safety measures concerning PPE and their employees. The only reason they’re picking on Amazon is because their huge and have a lot of money. The question is, if New York would happen to win a law suit then who gets the money. Is the state government going to pocket the money or are they going to give it to the people. The actual civilians who deserve it. The people who were literally hospitalized due to COVID. That is who deserves the money, no one else.

  • Dottie Heck says:

    No one knew what this virus was so in the beginning knew how to handle this. It just was not Amazon who did not know what it was till we really had it in this country. My drives truck and he had it and no one knew not even the doctors they though that he just had an infection. I am 78 years old and I have no plans of getting the shot I do have allergies and I am not taking changes

  • J says:

    When suing, you always go after those with the most money. Why do you think Pharma was sued concerning opioids, but nothing was mentioned about the doctors who recklessly prescribed the drug. Cuomo is mobster and a liberal idiot.

  • Erwin Hickman says:

    New York governor Cuomo needs to be the one that is used. The man is a disgrace to his job. YOU’RE FIRED !!!!!

  • Serena norris says:

    I work for Amazon and they are up to par.They created technology exclusively for this virus and shared it with others like huge monitors all over the building showing if your to close,and stations that are close together has dividers between them,and mandatory masks at all times. The break rooms have dividers and closures on all of the seats,temp checks for anyone coming in,constant cleaning,sanitizer and cleaning wipes at EVERY STATION and wash stations throughout the facility’s and sanitizer stations everywhere and so much more. Granted they gave a couple little bonuses and the Christmas bonus this year was taken over by a small covid bonus we didn’t revieve till the very end of January but its still doing alot to protect us.

  • FireCracker says:

    I cannot get out of this state fast enough. And what happened to the red states??

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