A New York state-owned company has filed an administrative complaint differentiating Amazon, alleging that the e-commerce giant discriminated against pregnant women and people with disabilities by depriving them of those “reasonable accommodations” and forcing them to take unpaid leave, Gov. Kathy Hochul said Wednesday.
Amazon has more than 39,000 employees across New York City at about two dozen job sites, employing in-house experts who evaluate housing requests, according to a report from the governor’s office. But the New York State Division of Human Rights, the firm that filed the complaint alleges that the store has a policy that allows managers on site to forget about experts’ recommendations, which has led to the denial of staff requests.
State law requires all employers to provide moderate accommodations to pregnant or disabled staff. The governor lists 3 separate programs for workers from pregnant or disabled staff that he says have been denied.
The complaint also alleges that, under Amazon policy, workers with disabilities must take unpaid sick leave, even when the accommodation representative “has met a moderate accommodation that would allow the worker to perform the essential duties of his position without undue burden,” the governor’s workplace said in a statement. It said such practices violate state law.
“My administration will hold any employer, giant or small, accountable if it treats its staff with the dignity and respect they deserve,” Gov. Hochul said in a statement.
Among other things, the lawsuit aims to force Amazon to avoid what it calls its discriminatory conduct and pay fines and penalties. Amazon. com Inc. , based in Seattle, did not respond to a request for comment.
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