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Amazon logo on a company office building in Silicon Valley.
If anyone out there is still looking for a good reason to steer clear of Amazon, the second largest employer in the United States, here’s one: The trillion-dollar company is accused of discriminating against its workers with disabilities.
In the state of New York alone, Amazon operates forty-nine worksites with more than 47,500 workers. Earlier this month, one of those workers, an Amazon warehouse employee named Cayla Lyster, filed a lawsuit against the company in federal court alleging that when she asked for disability accommodations, Amazon threatened to fire her.
Lyster, who started working for Amazon in 2022, has Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a connective tissue disorder that can impair mobility. According to her complaint, Lyster requested work accommodations in 2023, such as being allowed to sit on a chair while she worked and avoid tasks that required her to use ladders. In response, she alleges the company “engaged in substantial delay” in providing these accommodations, compelled her to take an unpaid leave of absence, and repeatedly threatened her with termination.
Lyster’s lawsuit seeks damages for all hourly Amazon warehouse workers in New York over the last three years who sought, or intended to seek, job accommodations for their disabilities.
“My fight for accommodations at Amazon has been one of the most stressful and mentally damaging periods of my life,” Lyster said in a press release earlier this month. “I will hold Amazon accountable by demanding that they make changes to their accommodation and attendance processes so that all associates with disabilities, not just me, will be respected as human beings.”
This isn’t the first time workers with disabilities have spoken out against Amazon’s practices in relation to disability accommodations. Earlier this year, more than 200 disabled corporate employees accused the company of “systemic discrimination.”
In 2022, the state of New York filed a complaint against the company, alleging that its policies violated state law by forcing pregnant workers and workers with disabilities to take an unpaid leave of absence rather than allowing them to work with reasonable accommodations. According to the complaint, Amazon allowed worksite managers to override recommendations made by the company’s in-house “accommodation consultants.” As a result, employees were denied reasonable accommodations for their disabilities and pregnancy-related conditions.
And about a month before Lyster filed her lawsuit, New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin filed a complaint against the company for violating the state’s anti-discrimination laws. Platkin alleges Amazon places many pregnant employees and employees with disabilities on unpaid leave when they submit an accommodation request, and keeps them on unpaid leave after denying them accommodations.
“Put simply, Amazon has exploited pregnant workers and workers with disabilities in its New Jersey warehouses,” Platkin said in a press release last month. In building a trillion-dollar business, Amazon has flagrantly violated their rights and ignored their well-being – all while it continues to profit off their labor.”
In response to Lyster and Platkin’s legal actions, Amazon released a statement earlier this month denying claims that the company has violated any federal and state laws and claiming to prioritize employees’ health and well-being.