The United States Supreme Court has voted five to four to weaken rules that govern how much pollution is discharged into the country’s water supply, undermining the 1972 Clean Water Act.
The case involved San Francisco suing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) after the city was found to have violated the terms of a permit required for the discharge of wastewater pollution into the Pacific Ocean, reported The Washington Post.
San Francisco officials argued that the EPA’s authority had been exceeded due to vague permit rules that made it impossible to tell when a line had been crossed.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) is urging Republicans to call on Elon Musk to testify before the Senate labor committee in order to probe who in the Trump administration is truly in charge, as the Senate continues advancing cabinet picks in spite of Musk seemingly being behind most major decisions. In remarks on the nomination of President Donald Trump’s labor secretary pick…
The Trump administration has wasted no time attacking worker rights and bestowing even more power to employers through a barrage of anti-worker executive orders since Trump’s second term began. Within his first two weeks in office, Trump rapidly targeted LGBTQIA+ workers and undid civil rights protections. He fired two Democratic commissioners on the five-person Equal Employment Opportunity…
AFL-CIO and other major unions are suing Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in hopes of preventing the rogue agency from “raiding” the Department of Labor and gaining access to the personal information of potentially millions of American workers. In the lawsuit filed Wednesday, the coalition of federal employee unions say that DOGE has been going after federal agencies and…
Donald Trump’s Acting Labor Secretary Vincent Micone issued an order on Friday directing the Department of Labor (DOL) staff to “immediately cease and desist” enforcing government contractors’ adherence to anti-discrimination laws and affirmative action initiatives. Micone’s order directed the agency to cease all activities under Executive Order 11246, which President Trump revoked earlier…
This week, the Biden administration’s Department of Labor announced a significant change in a federal labor rule that classifies United States workers as either independent contractors or full employees. The new policy, published Wednesday, January 10, would make an increased number of freelance workers across many industries eligible for full-employee status…
A House Republican in Florida introduced a bill on Monday that would gut child labor laws in the state, allowing minors to work full time and overnight. Currently in Florida, 16 and 17-year-old youths are barred from working more than eight hours when school is scheduled the next day and more than 30 hours a week when school is in session. This bill would lift those restrictions…
The Biden administration proposed a major expansion of federal overtime protections on Wednesday in a new rule that could hand a raise to millions of workers across the country ahead of Labor Day next week. The Department of Labor is proposing raising the threshold under which salaried workers are guaranteed overtime pay from its current level of $35,568 to $55,000 a year. Crucially…
The Biden Administration has announced new protections to keep outdoor workers safe from extreme heat, and instructed the Department of Labor to issue a heat hazard alert and increase enforcement of heat-safety violations. “Millions of Americans are currently experiencing the effects of extreme heat, which is growing in intensity, frequency, and duration due to the climate crisis…
Federal investigators revealed Friday that one of the nation’s largest food sanitation companies illegally employed at least 102 children in dangerous jobs at 13 meatpacking facilities across eight states, leading to $1.5 million in fines. The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) said its Wage and Hour Division “found that children were working with hazardous chemicals and cleaning meat processing…
Federal investigators revealed Friday that one of the nation’s largest food sanitation companies illegally employed at least 102 children in dangerous jobs at 13 meatpacking facilities across eight states, leading to $1.5 million in fines.
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) said its Wage and Hour Division “found that children were working with hazardous chemicals and cleaning meat processing equipment including back saws, brisket saws, and head splitters.”
The probe determined that children ages 13 to 17 unlawfully worked for Kieler, Wisconsin-based Packers Sanitation Services Inc. at plants in Arkansas, Colorado, Indiana, Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, Tennessee, and Texas.
Jessica Looman, principal deputy administrator of the DOL’s Wage and Hour Division, said the child labor violations “were systemic” and “clearly indicate a corporate-wide failure by Packers Sanitation Services at all levels.”
“These children should never have been employed in meatpacking plants and this can only happen when employers do not take responsibility to prevent child labor violations from occurring in the first place,” Looman charged.
\u201cThe food sanitation company was employing children in the plants of well known companies like Tyson Food, Cargill, Turkey Valley Farms, and more. \nhttps://t.co/bpfX0BqfJ5\u201d
— More Perfect Union (@More Perfect Union)
1676656915
Michael Lazzeri, the division’s regional administrator in Chicago, said that “our investigation found Packers Sanitation Services’ systems flagged some young workers as minors, but the company ignored the flags.”
“When the Wage and Hour Division arrived with warrants, the adults—who had recruited, hired, and supervised these children—tried to derail our efforts to investigate their employment practices,” Lazzeri noted.
The DOL—which found at least three cases where illegally employed children were injured on the job—fined the company $15,138 for each child who was not legally employed, the highest possible penalty under federal law.
Some researchers have criticized the civil monetary penalties, which are set by Congress, as “woefully insufficient” to protect workers and to deter employers from violating labor laws.
“It’s really shameful that the level of fine is so low,” said Celine McNicholas, director of policy at the Economic Policy Institute, a research group that seeks to improve conditions for workers. “It’s not sufficiently toothy enough to prevent the use of child labor in the meatpacking industry.”
Despite such criticism, Solicitor of Labor Seema Nanda framed the case as an example of accountability, delcaring Friday, “The Department of Labor has made it absolutely clear that violations of child labor laws will not be tolerated.”
“No child should ever be subject to the conditions found in this investigation,” Nanda said. “The courts have upheld the department’s rightful authority to execute federal court-approved search warrants and compelled this employer to change their hiring practices to ensure compliance with the law. Let this case be a powerful reminder that all workers in the United States are entitled to the protections of the Fair Labor Standards Act and that an employer who violates wage laws will be held accountable.”
In a lengthy statement Friday, Packers Sanitation Services said that it was “pleased to have finalized this settlement figure.”
“We have been crystal clear from the start: Our company has a zero-tolerance policy against employing anyone under the age of 18 and fully shares the DOL’s objective of ensuring full compliance at all locations,” the statement continued, noting internal audits and the hiring of “a third-party law firm to review and help further strengthen our policies.”
The statement highlighted that none of the illegally employed children still work for Packers Sanitation Services, and “the DOL has also not identified any managers aware of improper conduct that are currently employed” by the company.
\u201cRepublicans in Iowa are pushing a bill to roll back child labor protections.\n\nIt would allow kids as young as 14 to work certain jobs in meatpacking plants.\n\nWhat if\u2026and hear me out\u2026we paid adult workers a living wage and gave them benefits instead of hiring children to work?\u201d
The revelations come amid a renewed national debate about child labor laws sparked by Republican legislators in Iowa pushing rollbacks to allow children as young as 14 to work in jobs including animal slaughtering, logging, and mining.
The proposal in Iowa is part of a trend of GOP state lawmakers across the country advocating relaxed child labor laws in recent years.
This post was originally published on Common Dreams.
On Tuesday, the Department of Labor (DOL) announced the proposal of a rule that could pave the way for millions of workers in the gig economy to be classified as employees in a significant win for labor advocates who have been fighting for better standards for gig workers for years.
The new rule will allow millions of people working for companies like Uber and Lyft — along with those working in construction, janitorial services, home care, and more — to be classified as employees if they are “economically dependent” on their work for the company. While it isn’t a binding law, which would likely have to be issued by Congress, the guidance will likely be used by judges and employers to determine worker classification.
In announcing the rule, labor officials rescinded a Donald Trump-era rule that expanded the pool of workers who could be classified as contractors or freelancers; the rule had allowed employers to deny those workers benefits that are required by the federal government, like a guaranteed minimum wage rate, overtime pay, the right to unionize, and more.
“While independent contractors have an important role in our economy, we have seen in many cases that employers misclassify their employees as independent contractors, particularly among our nation’s most vulnerable workers,” Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh said in a statement. “Misclassification deprives workers of their federal labor protections, including their right to be paid their full, legally earned wages.”
Labor unions and progressive economists have long advocated against conditions in the gig economy, saying that gig companies not only exploit workers, but also threaten to erode or have already eroded working conditions for workers across the economy.
A 2020 survey of gig workers found that about 1 in 7 such workers make an hourly rate less than the federal minimum wage of merely $7.25 an hour. They are also more susceptible to wage theft: over 60 percent of respondents reported losing earnings due to an inability to clock in or out, compared with about 20 percent of service sector employees.
“This is a long-awaited determination that will empower essential workers to assert their basic wage and hour, health and safety, and compensation rights,” Patricia Campos-Medina, who directs the Worker Institute at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations, told The Washington Post. “All workers are entitled to these rights, but employers easily avoid them by making arbitrary decisions on independent contractor rules.”
Corporations in the gig economy have saddled their business models on paying their workers as little as possible, with companies like Amazon and DoorDash going as far as to steal workers’ tips. These corporations are desperate to keep the status quo for gig workers; in California, gig companies spent over $200 million on their campaign to pass Prop 22 in 2020, a ruling that allowed them to keep workers from accessing employee benefits.
The new rule is a major blow to such companies; officials at some such corporations have estimated that reclassification could raise their labor costs by 20 or 30 percent, and Uber, Lyft and DoorDash have taken hits to their share prices as a result of the announcement.
Picture stepping into a drug rehab. You’re looking for treatment, but instead, you get hard work for no pay. For decades, this type of rehab has quietly spread across the country. How are rehabs allowed to do this?
Some organizations argue that participants can work without pay as long as they’re provided with housing and treatment. This issue was raised by a cultish organization that recruited dropouts from the hippie movement and had them sew bedazzled designer jean jackets. The clothes became a Hollywood fashion trend, and the unpaid labor propelled a case all the way to the Supreme Court.
The federal government doesn’t track work-based rehabs, so reporter Shoshana Walter spent a year counting them herself. She learned that work-based rehabs are present across the entire country. And the coronavirus pandemic has made the opioid epidemic even more deadly. As one crisis slams into another, we look at how work-based rehabs are turning participants into unpaid essential workers.
Leaked texts from organizers of the January 6 Capitol attack reveal that Donald Trump’s incitement of the far-right militants was directly linked to their plans to storm the Capitol.
Rolling Stone reports that Amy Kremer and Kylie Jane Kremer repeatedly discussed having meetings with the White House before the attack. During a March For Trump bus tour launched after the 2020 election, Amy Kremer reportedly wrote to fellow organizers: “For those of you that weren’t aware, I have jumped off the tour for the night and am headed to DC. I have a mtg at the WH tomorrow afternoon and then will be back tomorrow night.”
“Rest well,” she continued. “I’ll make sure the President knows about the tour tomorrow!” A spokesperson for Amy Kremer denied the content of these texts, telling Rolling Stone that parts of the publication’s reporting on the attack are untrue.
On December 13, Amy Kremer evidently texted, “still waiting to hear from the [White House] on the photo op with the bus,” referring to the March for Trump tour. The organizers frequently referenced the White House’s help in organizing the rally.
On New Year’s Day, Amy and Kylie Jane Kremer discussed the logistics of setting up the rally. “We are following POTUS’ lead,” Kylie Jane Kremer texted, per Rolling Stone. On January 3, organizers celebrated after Trump retweeted a post from Kylie Jane Kremer promoting the event. “I will be there. Historic day!” he wrote.
If verified, these texts showcase Trump’s close ties to the organizers of the attack, and lend even more evidence to the argument that Trump and his team are directly responsible for the day’s events.
Previously released evidence has shown that other organizers of the attack expressed sentiments similar to those of the Kremers.
The Department of Justice released information in February showing that members of the Oath Keepers, a far right militia composed of current and former military and police, were waiting for Trump’s go-ahead for months to “activate” members of the group. “Trump wants all able bodied Patriots to come” to the attack, one Oath Keepers member texted in December. That text came just days after Trump tweeted, “Big protests in D.C. on January 6. Be there. Will be wild!”
Rolling Stonepreviously reported that Republican lawmakers were also involved in the attack. Two organizers of the attack told the publication that Representatives Paul Gosar (Arizona), Lauren Boebert (Colorado), Mo Brooks (Alabama), Madison Cawthorn (North Carolina), Andy Biggs (Arizona), Louie Gohmert (Texas) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (Georgia) helped organize the attack on the Capitol, along with their staff.
Recent reporting has also revealed ties between Trump’s orbit and the attack; ProPublicarecently uncovered texts that show Kimberly Guilfoyle, a GOP operative and girlfriend to Donald Trump Jr., bragging about raising $3 million for the rally on January 6.
Texts uncovered by reporters will likely be used by the January 6 committee as evidence, along with communications by the attack’s organizers that have been amassed through subpoenas, including texts and communications from the Kremers. The two have also been issued subpoenas to provide testimony.
This week, Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order banning public and private entities in the state from issuing vaccine mandates — but two Texas-based airlines are planning to defy that order by requiring their employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
Southwest Airlines and American Airlines, both of which are headquartered in Texas, issued statements on Tuesday saying they would not comply with Abbott’s ban. The companies cited an upcoming order by the Biden administration, which would require workers at businesses with 100 employees or more to be vaccinated or present weekly negative COVID tests. Both companies noted that laws established by the White House override state policies.
“Federal action supersedes any state mandate or law, and we would be expected to comply with the President’s Order to remain compliant as a federal contractor,” Southwest said in a statement.
American Airlines said that airline officials believe “the federal vaccine mandate supersedes any conflicting state laws.”
Abbott’s executive order, issued earlier this week, bars any public or private sector entity from imposing rules that workers or customers be vaccinated. If a business defies this order, it could result in a $1,000 fine per violation, Abbott’s decree said.
But if companies plan to defy that order, they may have to litigate the issue in court until the Biden administration’s mandate is passed. At that point, the court would likely rule that the issue is a moot point, since the U.S. Constitution states that federal law, not state law, is the “supreme law of the land.”
President Joe Biden announced that the Labor Department would be rolling out the vaccination mandate for businesses in September, but the rule has not yet been formalized, as OSHA’s rulemaking process has delayed its implementation.
“If we can come together as a country and use those tools, if we raise our vaccination rate, protect ourselves and others with masking, expanded testing, and identify people who are infected, we can and we will turn the tide on COVID-19,” Biden said at the time.
Although the mandate would likely be challenged in courts, legal experts are largely in agreement that the rule from the White House would ultimately be upheld.
“I think it’s on pretty stable legal ground. The government’s in a strong position here,” said Lance Gable, a law professor at Wayne State University Law School in Detroit, Michigan, last month.
A group of five former rehab participants have filed a class-action lawsuit against The Salvation Army, alleging they were not paid for work they performed at the venerated charity.
The Salvation Army is one of the largest providers of drug and alcohol rehabilitation in the United States. Participants typically do not have to pay for a place in the residential program. But once there, the main mode of treatment is what The Salvation Army calls “work therapy” at the charity’s thrift stores, which generate more than $598 million in annual sales.
The lawsuit, filed Friday in San Francisco Superior Court, alleges that the charity violated California labor laws by not treating the workers as employees and failing to pay them minimum wage and overtime. According to the complaint, the participants worked more than 40 hours a week in “physically grueling and sometimes dangerous” jobs. Some picked up donations and worked in warehouses and stores, where they sorted, priced and displayed clothing, linens, shoes, accessories and housewares. Others performed maintenance jobs, repaired goods or operated heavy machinery. In exchange, they received gratuities of between $1 and $25 per week or “canteen cards” they could use to buy soda, chips or other snacks at The Salvation Army canteen.
The program provides room and board to the participants but requires them to sign up for and then relinquish their food stamps, according to the complaint. It also provides other services, such as spiritual counseling, Bible study and recreational outings.
But participants in the programs spent the vast majority of their time working. The charity admits only applicants who can work and routinely kicks participants out of the program if they get sick or injured and are no longer able to work, participants said. Most people do not complete the program, according to the complaint.
The Salvation Army did not respond to multiple requests for comment on the lawsuit. The organization has previously argued that rehab participants are not employees and are therefore not entitled to wages.
Jessica Riggin, one of the attorneys representing the plaintiffs, alleges that the organization is violating labor law by not treating the workers as employees. Whether or not the program helps people is irrelevant, she said.
“There’s no nonprofit exemption to the labor code,” she said. “Even if they do good, that’s not a reason for them to not comply with the law like every other California employer.”
The suit, the attorneys said, was filed in response to an investigation by Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting, which found that The Salvation Army is among hundreds of rehab facilities across the country that put participants to work without pay. The federal Department of Labor previously found the charity in violation of labor law in 1990, but after The Salvation Army filed a lawsuit and lobbied federal lawmakers, the federal agency dropped the case. The Labor Department then added specific language to an internal handbook that effectively ended federal enforcement actions against The Salvation Army for wage violations.
The participants are seeking certification as a class and are demanding back wages for work performed by participants at 15 Salvation Army rehab facilities in California over the past four years.
Their attorneys filed the case under the Private Attorneys General Act, a California law that allows private attorneys representing employees to file lawsuits on behalf of the state to recover civil penalties for labor code violations.
This story was edited by Esther Kaplan and copy edited by Nikki Frick.
Already battered by long shifts and high infection rates, essential workers struggling through the pandemic face another hazard of hard times: employers who steal their wages.
When a recession hits, U.S. companies are more likely to stiff their lowest-wage workers. These businesses often pay less than the minimum wage, make employees work off the clock, or refuse to pay overtime rates. In the most egregious cases, bosses don’t pay their employees at all.
Companies that hire child care workers, gas station clerks, restaurant servers and security guards are among the businesses most likely to get caught cheating their employees, according to a Center for Public Integrity analysis of minimum wage and overtime violations from the U.S. Department of Labor. In 2019 alone, the agency cited about 8,500 employers for taking about $287 million from workers.
President Joe Biden’s Labor Secretary Marty Walsh told Reuters on Thursday that he supports classifying gig workers as employees, which could signal a policy shift coming from the federal government.
“We are looking at it but in a lot of cases gig workers should be classified as employees,” Walsh told Reuters. “In some cases they are treated respectfully and in some cases they are not and I think it has to be consistent across the board.”
Walsh said that he wants to ensure that the “success” of companies that employ gig workers “trickles down to the worker.” He’s planning discussions between such companies and the Department of Labor to secure “all of the things that an average employee in America can access,” like health care and other benefits.
As head of the Labor Department, Walsh’s view could lead to significant changes to the gig economy. After the story was published, shares of Uber, Lyft and Doordash dropped significantly. Uber lost more than 6 percent, and Lyft and Doordash dropped more than 10 percent by midday.
Gig workers and the labor movement were dealt a blow last year when California passed Proposition 22, which allowed companies like Uber, Lyft, Instacart, DoorDash and Postmates — which together spent hundreds of millions lobbying for the legislation — to continue classifying their workers as gig workers instead of full employees. That means that these companies could continue not guaranteeing their employees a minimum wage and denying them benefits like paid sick leave and access to unemployment insurance.
Nonwhite and immigrant gig workers also don’t get the same protections from discrimination as employees in the U.S., which is particularly concerning because the vast majority of gig workers are people of color.
The nonemployee designation has led to dire conditions for some workers, especially during the pandemic. The Los Angeles Times reported last year that one Uber worker died after having contracted COVID-19 while driving for the company. His family’s request for worker compensation was then denied because he wasn’t an employee of the company.
Labor advocates decried the passage of Prop 22 when it passed in November. Robert R. Raymond wrote for Truthout that it was “one of the most significant setbacks to labor rights in recent history,” while also noting that gig workers were quietly being denied employee status in state legislatures across the country last year.
Gig workers make up a large portion of the workforce in the U.S. According to a 2017 survey by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 55 million people, or 34 percent of the workforce, were gig workers, a figure that was expected to grow. Other sources like the Freelancers’ Union have found that the figure varies between 25 and 35 percent of the workforce.
Workers are hurt by harmful gig economy policies, but the government also misses out on revenue when so many workers are denied benefits; companies can skirt paying for Medicare, Social Security and unemployment insurance taxes when they keep their workers from being employees. In California alone, the state has estimated that it loses out on $7 billion in revenue annually due to the classification.
According to a recent report, during the first nine months of the Covid-19 pandemic the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) received more complaints but performed far fewer inspections than usual. Between February 1 and October 26, 2020, OSHA received 15 percent more complaints but performed 50 percent fewer inspections when compared to a similar period in 2019. To make matters worse, most of these inspections were not conducted on-site, even as U.S. coronavirus deaths skyrocketed and many outbreaks were linked to workplace transmission.
OSHA is responsible for the safety and health of 130 million workers employed at eight million worksites. However, the agency has long been criticized for having too few inspectors and for issuing penalties that were too soft to alter employer behavior.
According to the report from the Department of Labor’s Inspector General, OSHA issued 295 violations for 176 Covid-related inspections during this nine-month period, while state-related reviews resulted in 1,679 violations for 756 COVID-19 related inspections. (There are now 22 state OSHA plans which cover both private and state and local government workers and six state plans that cover only state and local government workers.)
Meanwhile, the agency received 23,447 complaints — 3,056 more than in 2019 — and only performed 13,010 inspections — 13,164 less than 2019.
Remote Inspections
The use of remote inspections drew special attention from the Inspector General. Because inspections are remote rather than on-site, the report said that “hazards may go unidentified and unabated longer, with employees being more vulnerable to hazardous risk exposure while working.”
While remote inspections might help mitigate potential transmission of Covid by those involved in the inspection process, the report determined that reduced on-site inspections could result in more worksite accidents, injuries, deaths, or employee illnesses.
“The lack of on-site inspections may impact OSHA’s ability to observe employer practices, quickly mitigate any potential hazards, and issue violations sooner to control the spread of disease to other employees,” the Inspector General said.
The report also observed that on-site inspections historically result in prompt corrective action for at least a portion of hazards identified. A 2017 Inspector General review, for example, reported that for approximately one-third of the OSHA-issued citations reviewed, “employers abated the hazard during the inspection or with 24 hours of OSHA identifying the hazard.”
While the report provided no breakdown of Covid deaths by industry, the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting reports that as of February 26, there have been at least 45,000-reported positive cases related to meat and poultry processing. In that industry, there were at least 483 outbreaks in 38 states, with at least 243 reported worker deaths in 62 plants in 27 states.
In addition, a recent University of California-San Francisco study of Californians aged 18-65 in the March through October 2020 period found that cooks had the highest risk of mortality, followed by packaging and filling machine operators, agricultural workers, bakers and construction workers.
Recommendations
The Inspector General’s report says that the healthcare industry accounted for 24 percent of COVID-19 related complaints, followed by retail trade (11 percent), restaurants and other eateries (6 percent), construction (3 percent), general warehousing and storage (2 percent), automotive repair (1 percent), and “other,” (53 percent).
The Inspector General recommended four actions:
Improve OSHA’s inspection strategy by prioritizing high-risk employers for Covid-related onsite inspection, particularly as businesses reopen and increase operations. OSHA accepted this recommendation, noting that President Biden had ordered the agency to focus OSHA Covid-related enforcement on violations that put the largest number of workers at serious risk or are contrary to anti-retaliation principles;
Ensure remote inspections are tracked retroactive to February 1, 2020 and going forward. OSHA accepted this recommendation, noting that since November, it has been requiring specific coding for all offsite Covid inspections, retroactive to February 1, 2020;
Compare remote inspections to onsite inspections and document the frequency and timeliness of inspectors in identifying and ensuring abatement of workplace hazards. OSHA accepted this recommendation and said that for inspections resulting in violations, it will compare onsite and remote inspections and evaluate whether or not documentation was received to demonstrate abatement and abatement status, and;
Analyze and determine whether establishing an infectious disease-specific Emergency Temporary Standard is necessary to help control the spread of Covid as employees return to the workplace, an action called for by many unions . The Inspector General noted that OSHA had not used its authority to issue an Emergency Temporary Standard. OSHA accepted this recommendation and said that the agency has already begun to consider whether any Emergency Temporary Standards, including with respect to masks in the workplace, are necessary.
Brian Michael Doherty is a freelance writer and a retired AFGE Member.
*The following was originally published as part of The Dissenter newsletter.
Backing claims of retaliation by two whistleblowers, the New York’s attorney general sued Amazon for failing to protect workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The complaint [PDF] filed on February 16 covers Amazon’s mistreatment or neglect toward workers at two facilities in New York City—a Staten Island fulfillment center and a Queens distribution center.
It notes Attorney General Letitia James obtained documentation with evidence of “adverse actions” taken against workers at the fulfillment center in “retaliation for raising health and safety concerns.”
“While Amazon and its CEO made billions during this crisis, hardworking employees were forced to endure unsafe conditions and were retaliated against for rightfully voicing these concerns,” James declared. “Since the pandemic began, it is clear that Amazon has valued profit over people and has failed to ensure the health and safety of its workers.”
Christian Smalls and Derrick Palmer worked at the fulfillment center and blew the whistle on hazardous workplace conditions in March 2020. They shared what they witnessed with the news media and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Although these were protected disclosures under labor law, Amazon fired Smalls and singled out Palmer for discipline.
Smalls was informed his employment would be terminated after he participated in a March 30 protest and called attention to health and safety issues. The corporation claimed he was terminated for “violating the quarantine order and for violating Amazon’s social distancing requirements by his conduct during the March 30 protest.”
The two whistleblowers informed representatives they believed they came into close contact with an employee, who tested positive for COVID-19.
Before it was confirmed that Smalls would need to quarantine, Christine Hernandez, a human resources manager, discussed a plan for retaliation with a “human resources business partner” on March 27.
Hernandez and the “business partner” “anticipated that Amazon would issue Smalls a directive to quarantine and that he would violate it” by attending the March 30 protest.
Amazon never informed Smalls before or during the protest that he needed to leave because he was violating a quarantine order, according to the complaint. Nor was Smalls ever issued a written warning or instructed he would receive disciplinary coaching.
Communications show human resources recognized it was inappropriate for Amazon to approach Smalls with a “termination mentality.”
Palmer complained multiple times to Amazon managers in late March and early April. He received a “final written warning” on April 10 for allegedly violating the fulfilment center’s “social distancing policy” on March 25, 26, and 27. But Amazon never issued an initial warning indicating Palmer had violated Amazon policy.
At Amazon, ninety percent of discipline for violations resulted in “documented coaching” and fewer than 10 percent resulted in “final written warnings.” The corporation made an example out of Palmer.
“Following Amazon’s discharge of Smalls and issuance of a final written warning to Palmer, Amazon employees reasonably fear that if they make legitimate health and safety complaints about Amazon’s COVID-19 response, Amazon will retaliate against them as well,” the complaint contends.
In addition to other remedies requested to deal with the lack of workplace safety, the attorney general’s complaint urges the state’s supreme court to award backpay and “emotional distress damages” and order Amazon to reinstate Smalls to his position. It also demands the court order Amazon to “rescind the discipline” against Palmer.
Previously, Palmer filed a lawsuit in a federal court in New York. It was dismissed after the court decided whether Amazon was compliant with COVID-19 safety guidelines was a matter for the United States Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to resolve.
OSHA has largely shirked its responsibility to protect workers, especially whistleblowers, and deferred to corporate executives.
In 2020, OSHA received 4,101 complaints between February 1 and May 31. That represented a 30 percent increase when compared to the same period in 2019. At least 1,600 related to the pandemic, yet only 400 of those cases were “docketed” or put on a list of pending complaints.
CNBC reported around the same time Smalls and Palmer voiced concerns, warehouse workers and delivery drivers were “forced to choose between going to work and risking their health or staying home and not being able to pay their bills.”
The terrain largely remains as it was in the earliest stages of the crisis. As James put it, “Workers who have powered this country and kept it going during the pandemic are the very workers who continue to be treated the worst.”
