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The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, calls for compensation for small and more protective measures for Amazon workers who continue to process packages at the company’s facilities in in the midst of a worsening health crisis.
The lawsuit marks a high-profile attack on Amazon for its health and safety practices in the early months of the pandemic, when strong consumer demand for e-commerce put additional strain on the company’s logistics network. Amazon said it has provided more hand sanitizer, implemented temperature controls and demanded social distancing at its facilities. But even as the policies unfolded, the workers themselves said that was not enough.
Smalls was fired by Amazon earlier this year after he held a protest outside his workplace, the JFK8 fulfillment center in Staten Island, to highlight what Smalls called unsafe working conditions at the start of the pandemic.
Smalls started working for Amazon in 2015 and was promoted to a mid-level executive position the following year, according to the lawsuit. The complaint claims that after a colleague tested positive for the virus, Smalls confronted his superiors, who allegedly refused to issue a quarantine order for those who came into contact with the infected employee. Facility officials have also reportedly ignored advice from state and federal public health officials, failed to provide workers with protective gear, or establish social distancing guidelines in response to alarm expressions from Smalls.
At the time of his dismissal and on Thursday, Amazon said it had placed Smalls in coronavirus quarantine and by showing up at the JFK8 facility for the protest, Smalls had violated the terms of that quarantine.
“We fired Mr. Smalls for endangering the health and safety of others and for violating his working conditions,” Amazon spokeswoman Lisa Levandowski said. “Mr. Smalls has received several warnings for violating social distancing guidelines. It was also discovered that he had had close contact with an associate diagnosed with a confirmed case of COVID-19 and was asked to stay in touch. home with pay for 14 days. Despite this instruction to stay home with pay, he came on site, further endangering the teams. “
Michael Sussman, one of the attorneys representing Smalls in his litigation, said Thursday’s case involved various allegations of racial discrimination, not employment law.
Thursday’s lawsuit alleges that Amazon ignored Smalls’ calls and paid greater attention to the health and safety of white plant officials compared to those of black and brown line workers.
“We suggest that Amazon’s cavalier attitude was because it was blacks and Maroons who were primarily affected in this facility,” said CK Hoffler, another of the attorneys representing Smalls in the litigation. Hoffler is also chairman of the National Bar Association and chairman of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, which supports the litigation (but is not named as a plaintiff in the lawsuit).
At a press conference Thursday, Smalls told reporters that “white Amazon managers were being quarantined, one by one,” but line officers were told the managers were just going on vacation. At the time, Smalls said, Amazon had not implemented any of the security measures it currently practices. It was only after Smalls was fired that these policies began, he said.
In a statement responding to civil rights claims, Levandowski said Amazon is committed to diversity and inclusion.
“Diverse teams help us think bigger and differently about the products and services we develop for our customers and the day-to-day nature of our workplace,” said Levandowski.
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