(New York) Amazon on Friday sued New York State Attorney Letitia James, who accused it of negligence in protecting its employees during the pandemic, threatening a lawsuit against the retail giant online.
Posted on February 12, 2021 at 1:42 p.m.
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In the spring of 2020, several rallies were held outside Amazon’s sprawling warehouse on Staten Island, with employees criticizing management for not having sufficiently protected them against COVID-19.
Amazon then assured to have done more than necessary to limit the risk of contagion, setting up safety distances between employees and tripling the frequency of cleaning the premises.
Prosecutor Letitia James then announced to open an investigation. At the end of April, she sent a letter to the online trading platform, after concluding that the protective measures were “inadequate”.
The head of the New York State prosecutor’s office indicated that the investigation would continue and reserved the possibility of subsequently seizing a judge.
In the document filed Friday in federal court in Brooklyn, Amazon accuses Letitia James of not having taken into account the elements provided by the group, but also of having subjected it to a kind of blackmail.
PHOTO BRENDAN MCDERMID, ARCHIVES REUTERS
An employee at the JFK8 warehouse in Staten Island
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The prosecutor thus demanded from the company a series of concessions, failing which she planned to sue Amazon in court.
Many of these demands, Amazon points out in the document, “have no relation to the health and safety” of its employees, and have “no legal basis”.
Letitia James demands, among other things, that the platform redistribute a larger portion of its profits, subsidize public transport, or reduce its rates and performance indicators.
Amazon claims to have already offered transport subsidies but to have suffered the refusal of the New York management MTA. The company also claims to have already reduced rates given the constraints of the pandemic.
The e-commerce giant is asking a federal judge to rule that the New York state prosecutor has no jurisdiction to take legal action on these issues.
“During this pandemic, Amazon employees have been forced to work in dangerous conditions, even as the group and its CEO raked in billions on their backs,” Letitia James replied, in a statement released Friday.
“We will not be intimidated by anyone, especially not by brutal companies that prioritize profits over the health and safety of workers,” she added.
Indicating to study “all legal avenues”, the prosecutor did not indicate whether or not she intended to go to court.
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