NEW YORK (AP) – Amazon is suing the New York Attorney General in an attempt to prevent it from suing the company over its coronavirus security protocols and firing one of its sincere workers.
In a lawsuit filed Friday in Brooklyn federal court, Amazon said Attorney General Letitia James exceeded her authority by trying to regulate coronavirus safety protocols at her warehouse in New York’s Staten Island.
The company said James had threatened to sue Amazon if it did not agree to its list of demands, including recruiting Christian Smalls, and paying him and another fired worker large sums of money.
James said Friday that he will continue to review his legal options. In a statement, she called Amazon’s trial “a sad attempt to distract from the facts and avoid responsibility for its failures to protect employees from a deadly virus.”
Amazon has defended its COVID-19 safety protocols in the process, saying it has hired experts, added hand sanitization stations and signs warning workers to be at least 6 meters away from each other. He also said unannounced inspections in March and April by the New York Sheriff’s Office found that the warehouse exceeded safety requirements.
Amazon fired Smalls in March after leading an outing to the Staten Island warehouse to push the company to better protect its workers from the virus. Smalls said he was fired in retaliation and to stop other workers from speaking. Amazon said it stopped Smalls because it violated social distance guidelines.
The company claimed in court documents that only the federal government can mandate the COVID-19 security protocols and that the attorney general’s office does not have the legal authority “which it claims to exercise against Amazon.”
Seattle-based Amazon is asking the court to stop James from pursuing any action against the company and declare that it has no authority over COVID-19 safety measures or to regulate claims against which a worker has been retaliated against.