Amazon Faces Lawsuit for Allegedly Firing Employee Who Organized Strike
TapTechNews June 24th news, according to TheVerge's report last Saturday local time, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in the US filed a lawsuit against Amazon based in Seattle, accusing the company of illegally disciplining and firing an employee, who had assisted in organizing the strike last May to protest against Amazon's new back-to-work order released early last year.
TapTechNews summarizes the incident process:
February 2023: Amazon's chief executive officer Andy Jassy sent an email to company employees outlining the new back-to-work guidelines. Previously, individual teams within the company could decide the work location of employees themselves, but Jassy's email showed that starting from May 1, 2023, most Amazon employees were required towork in the office at least three days a week, and some positions such as salespersons and customer support personnel were not restricted.
May-June 2023: Thousands of Amazon employees signed a petition against the new regulations and held a strike.
August 2023: According to Insider magazine's disclosure, in a meeting that month, Andy Jassy reaffirmed the company's commitment to having employeesreturn to the office most of the time.
The NLRB's complaint alleges that Amazon used its internal Chime system to interrogate employees about the strike. After the employee involved in organizing the strike, Amazon first put him in a performance improvement plan: If the employee signed the separation agreement and the global release agreement in exchange for resignation, Amazon would pay a severance package equivalent to nine weeks' salary.
Subsequently, Amazon responded to the NLRB's complaint and issued a statement to TheVerge, stating:
It is clear that this has nothing to do with whether this former employee opposed our return-to-work guidance. She has consistently performed poorly for nearly a year and has repeatedly failed to complete assigned projects. Despite the company providing extensive support and guidance, this former employee still could not improve her performance and chose to leave the company.