{"id":342299,"date":"2026-09-09T23:16:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T23:16:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/342299\/"},"modified":"2026-09-09T23:16:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T23:16:11","slug":"amazon-accused-of-discriminating-against-thousands-of-pregnant-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/342299\/","title":{"rendered":"Amazon Accused of Discriminating Against Thousands of Pregnant Workers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tFormer Amazon<\/a> employees filed a class-action lawsuit Tuesday accusing the e-tail leviathan of discriminating against potentially thousands of pregnant workers<\/a> by firing or retaliating against those who sought extra accommodations.<\/p>\n

\n\tFiled in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York on behalf of four former hourly warehouse workers<\/a>, the complaint alleged that Amazon<\/a> violated the federal Pregnant Workers Fairness Act and New York state law, both of which require employers to provide reasonable workplace adjustments for pregnancy, childbirth and related medical conditions.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cPlaintiffs Willamina Barclay, Kristina Green, Jennifer Hatch and Dazaria Parks were formerly Amazon warehouse employees,\u201d the lawsuit stated. \u201cAll four became pregnant. All four asked Amazon for basic pregnancy-related accommodations so they could keep doing their jobs. Amazon denied them basic modifications the law recognizes pregnant workers regularly need, even in uncomplicated pregnancies: bathroom breaks, an extra 15-minute break, sitting instead of standing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAmazon insisted on medical paperwork for every pregnancy-related accommodation request, no matter how simple, even though such documentation often took weeks to obtain early in pregnancy, the complaint added.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe plaintiffs were explicitly punished, however, when they took what the complaint described as \u201cmedically necessary breaks or absences to get off their feet, visit the doctor or go to the emergency room.\u201d Amazon deducted their unpaid time off and, when that was depleted, threatened to terminate them, the lawsuit claimed.<\/p>\n

\n\tKelly Nantel, an Amazon spokesperson, rejected the allegations, saying the Everything Store approved more than 99.9 percent of pregnancy-related accommodation requests over the past year, including additional breaks, modified duties, and seated roles.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cEnsuring the health and well-being of our employees is one of our greatest responsibilities, and we strive to provide a safe and supportive environment for everyone, which includes supporting tens of thousands of employees with pregnancy accommodations each year,\u201d Nantel said. \u201cOur accommodations policies follow the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, and any implication we don\u2019t follow federal law is false and misleading.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe complaint, however, describes a different experience.<\/p>\n

\n\tBarclay, who was hired in September 2024 as a \u201cpicker\u201d at Amazon\u2019s ROC1 warehouse in Rochester, New York\u2014a role that required carrying heavy boxes, repetitive squatting and climbing ladders\u2014said she was denied a seated position after becoming pregnant the following March, despite a high-risk pregnancy complicated by preeclampsia and severe morning sickness. <\/p>\n

\n\tIn her account, Amazon stalled her request for weeks while waiting for paperwork, with one manager reportedly saying, \u201cIf I give you a chair, I have to give everybody else a chair.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe company deducted Barclay\u2019s approved extra breaks and the time she spent in the emergency room after suffering severe abdominal pain from lifting heavy objects from her unpaid time off, according to the complaint. When her balance fell below zero, it said, Amazon fired her.<\/p>\n

\n\tHatch, hired in late September 2024 to process customer returns at Amazon\u2019s BUF9 Fulfillment Center in Lancaster, New York, worked until around March 21, 2025. Like the other plaintiffs, she requested basic pregnancy-related accommodations but faced demands for medical documentation and delays. When she took medical breaks or absences, Amazon deducted the time from her limited unpaid time-off bank. As with Barclay, once that balance hit zero, the company let her go.<\/p>\n

\n\tGreen worked as an associate at Amazon\u2019s ROC1 warehouse in Rochester from November 2023 until July 2024, then was rehired in September 2025 and worked until May 2026. The complaint says Amazon penalized her for pumping in the company lactation room, marking that time as \u201cinactive\u201d and flagging her for excessive \u201ctime off task,\u201d before threatening termination. She was fired after her breaks and absences emptied her unpaid time-off bank.<\/p>\n

\n\tCurrently pregnant, Parks was hired in late April 2025 as a delivery associate at Amazon\u2019s DRO2 Delivery Station in Rochester, where she worked 10-12-hour overnight shifts through mid-July 2026, scanning and lifting heavy packages and climbing ladders. She, too, requested basic pregnancy-related accommodations for pregnancy-related sciatica, only to be met with demands for medical documentation, delays and penalties, the lawsuit stated.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile managers encouraged her to \u201ctake it easy\u201d and \u201cdo the lighter packages,\u201d nearly all of the packages in her department weighed more than 20 pounds and required bending to pick up. Like her fellow plaintiffs, Parks\u2019 unpaid time-off bank was depleted by periods of pregnancy-related absence, including hospitalization for intense cramping. And like them, she was eventually fired.<\/p>\n

\n\tA Better Balance, a workers\u2019 rights nonprofit, submitted the lawsuit roughly 11 months after New Jersey sued the Seattle-based company over widespread discrimination<\/a> against warehouse employees with disabilities or who were pregnant. New York filed a similar lawsuit in 2022, accusing Amazon of forcing workers with disabilities and pregnant workers to take unpaid leave rather than provide them with reasonable accommodations.<\/p>\n

\n\tAmazon is the world\u2019s second-largest private employer after Walmart, with nearly 1.6 million full-time and part-time employees worldwide. More than 1 million of them are based in the United States.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAmazon is one of this country\u2019s largest employers,\u201d the lawsuit said. \u201cIt is no surprise that many of its workers become pregnant. It knows it must comply with the federal Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, which provides critical legal protections so pregnant workers can equally participate in the workforce. Yet Amazon violates the \u200blaw at every turn.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Amazon employees filed a class-action lawsuit Tuesday accusing the e-tail leviathan of discriminating against potentially thousands of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":342300,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[586,2850,9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":["post-342299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-staten-island","tag-amazon","tag-lawsuits","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-staten-island","tag-staten-island-headlines","tag-staten-island-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342299\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/342300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}