(Left to right) Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Lou Rocco/ABC via Getty ImagesEC/Joe Raedle/Getty Images/Win McNamee/Getty Images
- Six Democrat lawmakers wrote to the Department of Labor and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
- They asked for the DOL and EEOC to investigate whether Amazon’s absence policy breaks federal laws.
- The lawmakers said Amazon’s policy penalizes workers for emergency time-off.
A group of Democrat lawmakers are calling on the Department of Labor and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to investigate Amazon’s absence policy for workers, which the believe could be illegally penalizing workers.
Senators Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, and Richard Blumenthal as well as Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Cory Booker, and Cori Bush sent a letter to the DOL and EEOC Thursday.
In the letter, the lawmakers say they believe Amazon’s absence policies could be in violation of the Family and Medical Leave Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act.
“Amazon’s Attendance Points Policy punishes workers for missing work unexpectedly, regardless of the reason,” the lawmakers wrote.
They cite a January report from legal advocacy nonprofit A Better Balance. In the report, A Better Balance included a screenshot of Amazon’s policy on absences, which said the policy had taken effect on October 24, 2021.
The policy gives two examples of how workers can be penalized. The first is “Absence Submission Infractions,” which workers accrue if they don’t notify their warehouse of an absence more than two hours before their shift starts.
“Amazon will review your employment for termination if you get 3 ASIs in a rolling 60-day period,” the policy states.
Workers can also accrue “attendance points,” which they get for absences “not covered by leave of absence of an approved time-off option.” According to the policy published by A Better Balance, eight absence points will result in Amazon reviewing a worker’s employment.
The Democrat lawmakers said these policies don’t take into account emergency time off, which is protected under federal law.
“For example, if a worker’s child had a severe asthma attack the night before a shift, and the worker took the child to the emergency room, then, under the FMLA, Amazon cannot require the worker to leave the child to report the absence while the child is receiving emergency treatment,” the letter states.
“Amazon’s policy, however, appears to punish this legally-protected right if it results in delayed notice of an absence,” it adds.
The letter also accused Amazon of failing to inform workers of their rights, “keeping workers in the dark about the existing protections to which they are entitled, and intimidating them from exercising these rights by threats of termination.”
Amazon did not immediately reply when contacted by Insider for comment.
The DOL and EEOC did not immediately respond when contacted by Insider outside of normal US working hours.
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