A former Amazon employee is suing the company, claiming she was wrongfully terminated after taking time off to recover from COVID-19-like symptoms and sounding the alarm about safety concerns inside the warehouse where she worked.
It appears to be the first lawsuit brought by an Amazon employee over the company's response to the coronavirus crisis, a subject of much criticism and activism over the past few weeks.
Enesha Yurchak filed the lawsuit Tuesday in Circuit Court of the State of Oregon. She worked as an on-site emergency medical technician at a warehouse in Salem, Ore., according to the complaint. It names Amazon and her former supervisors as defendants and seeks damages.
Yurchak took time off in early March when she began experiencing symptoms consistent with COVID-19, according to the complaint. Upon her return in mid-April, Yurchak says she witnessed violations of safety policies designed to stem the spread of the virus. She and several coworkers were asked, at that time, to wash other employees' personal protective equipment.
She expressed concern to her supervisor about the risks associated with washing the gear and failures to conduct necessary sanitization of facilities, according to the complaint. After a tense conversation, Yurchak says she fell ill again. She left work to recover, at which point she was terminated for "insubordination" the litigation says.
The lawsuit also alleges that Yurchak's supervisor withheld masks from employees that arrived in early April.
Amazon says it has implemented 150 process changes and is going to "extreme measures" to protect employees and compensate them for working through the crisis. Those changes include mandatory temperature screenings at all facilities, increased hourly base pay, and expanded sick time off polices.
The company did not respond to GeekWire's request to comment on the lawsuit. News of the suit was reported earlier today by The Oregonian.
"Amazon acted with malice, showed a reckless and outrageous indifference to a highly unreasonable risk of harm, and acted with a conscious indifference to the health, safety and welfare of others," the complaint says.
It isn't clear how many workers at the Salem facility have tested positive for COVID-19; Amazon is not disclosing the number of cases at its warehouses. But The Oregonian reported at least one employee had the virus by the end of March.
There are COVID-19 cases in at least 129 Amazon fulfillment centers, according to an internal tally maintained by warehouse workers in a private Facebook group. The Intercept's Daniel Medina reports that the number exceeds 150 warehouses, with at least 650 Amazon employees who have tested positive for the virus.
The growing outbreaks are fomenting frustration among Amazon employees, sparking activism, and inviting inquiries from elected officials. Amazon has responded by firing some of the most vocal employees to speak out about the company's coronavirus response, saying they violated company policy. Amazon says not all of the employees were fired because of their public criticism of the company. One tech worker resigned from his position as a vice president of engineering at Amazon this week in response to the firings.
Read the complaint below:
Amazon COVID-19 Lawsuit by GeekWire on Scribd
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