New York AG’s office questions Amazon over “inadequate” COVID-19 safety

New York Attorney General Letitia James hasn't been impressed with Amazon's response to the coronavirus crisis.

"While we continue to investigate, the information so far available to us raises concerns that Amazon's health and safety measures taken in response to the COVID-19 pandemic are so inadequate that they may violate several provisions of the Occupational Safety and Health Act," James's staff wrote in an April 22 letter first obtained by National Public Radio.

The crisis has produced surging demand for Amazon's delivery services. But as Amazon has hired an extra 175,000 people to help fill orders, it has also faced criticism about its safety practices. Last month, a number of workers (Amazon counted 15, organizers claimed 60) protested outside a massive Amazon fulfillment center on Staten Island. Amazon has also seen sporadic online protests in recent weeks.

The Staten Island protestors wanted their facility shut down for a deep cleaning. Amazon workers have also called for universal paid sick leave and stronger efforts to keep workers separated during work hours.

But Amazon says that it is doing everything it can to protect its workers from the coronavirus.

"We made over 150 process updates—from enhanced cleaning and social distancing measures to new efforts like disinfectant spraying," a spokeswoman told Ars by email. "We distributed personal protective gear, such as masks for our employees, and implemented disinfectant spraying and temperature checks across our operations worldwide."

“Many workers are fearful”

In their letter, New York officials also questioned Amazon's decision to fire Chris Smalls, one of the organizers of the Staten Island protest. Smalls accused Amazon of retaliating against him for his organizing efforts. Amazon insists that Smalls was fired for defying a stay-at-home order after he came into contact with an infected co-worker.

James's office writes that their findings so far "raise serious concern that Amazon may have discharged [Smalls] in order to silence his complaints and send a threatening message to other employees that they should also keep quiet about any health and safety concerns."

"This Office has learned that many workers are fearful about speaking out about their concerns following the termination of Mr. Smalls' employment," the letter added. "This is a particularly dangerous message to send during a pandemic, when chilling worker speech about health and safety practices could literally be a matter of life and death."

But Amazon says it has done nothing wrong.

"We did not terminate Mr. Smalls’ employment for organizing a 15-person protest," Amazon said by email. "We terminated his employment for putting the health and safety of others at risk and violations of his terms of his employment. Mr. Smalls received multiple warnings for violating social distancing guidelines."

Amazon says Smalls was instructed to stay home for 14 days after he came into contact with a coworker who had COVID-19 and that Smalls came to work anyway to help lead the protest.

Whatever the reasons for Smalls' termination, a leaked internal memo suggests that Amazon may have had a deliberate strategy to make him the face of worker organizing at Amazon.

“He’s not smart, or articulate, and to the extent the press wants to focus on us versus him, we will be in a much stronger PR position than simply explaining for the umpteenth time how we’re trying to protect workers,” Amazon's general counsel wrote.

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