London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 02, 2025

Fired Amazon worker sues over pandemic working conditions

Fired Amazon worker sues over pandemic working conditions

Fired Amazon worker Christian Smalls filed a class-action lawsuit against the e-commerce giant on Thursday, alleging that Amazon violated federal civil rights law by terminating his employment and by allegedly putting thousands of other minority Amazon workers at risk during the pandemic.
The suit, filed in US district court in the Eastern District of New York, calls for compensation for Smalls and more protective measures for Amazon workers who continue to handle packages in the company's facilities amid a worsening health crisis.

Amazon (AMZN) didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

The suit marks a high-profile attack against Amazon for its health and safety practices in the early months of the pandemic, when a surge in consumer demand for e-commerce put additional strain on the company's logistics network. Amazon has said it has provided more hand sanitizer, implemented temperature checks and required social distancing at its facilities. But even as the policies were rolling out, workers themselves were saying it was not enough.

In October, Amazon confirmed that nearly 20,000 of its workers had tested positive or been presumed positive for the coronavirus, highlighting the toll that the pandemic has taken on the company's workforce even as Americans have come to depend more heavily on the platform for rapid delivery of everyday necessities.

Smalls was fired by Amazon earlier this year after organizing a protest outside his workplace, the JFK8 fulfillment center in Staten Island, to highlight what Smalls said were unsafe working conditions at the start of the pandemic.

Smalls began working for Amazon in 2015 and was promoted to a mid-level management position the following year, according to the suit. The complaint claims that after a colleague tested positive for the virus, Smalls confronted his supervisors, who allegedly declined to issue a quarantine order for those who had come into contact with the infected employee.

The facility's managers also allegedly ignored guidance from state and federal public health officials, failed to provide workers with protective equipment or establish social distancing guidelines in response to Smalls' expressions of alarm.

At the time of his firing, Amazon said it had placed Smalls under coronavirus quarantine and that by showing up to the JFK8 facility for the protest, Smalls had violated the terms of that quarantine.

Smalls "was found to have had close contact with a diagnosed associate with a confirmed case of COVID-19 and was asked to remain home with pay for 14 days," Amazon spokesperson Kristen Kish said at the time. "Despite that instruction to stay home with pay, he came onsite [on] March 30, putting the teams at risk."

Smalls is not the only Amazon worker to complain about safe working conditions. Amazon employees nationwide have staged protests and written petitions. New York Attorney General Letitia James has launched an investigation, one that Smalls said he has cooperated with.

Last week, a federal judge tossed out a case alleging unsafe working conditions at the Staten Island Amazon facility, saying it was not the place of courts to dictate workplace safety requirements in the middle of a pandemic.

Michael Sussman, one of the attorneys representing Smalls in his litigation, said Thursday's case involves different allegations over racial discrimination, not workplace law.

Thursday's suit alleges that Amazon ignored Smalls' pleas and paid greater attention to the health and safety of the plant's white managers over that of black and brown line workers.

"We would suggest that the cavalier attitude that Amazon took was because they were black and brown people who were primarily impacted at this facility," said CK Hoffler, another of the attorneys representing Smalls in the litigation. Hoffler is also the president of the National Bar Association and chair of the
Rainbow PUSH Coalition, which is backing the litigation (but is not named as a plaintiff in the suit).

In a press conference Thursday, Smalls told reporters that Amazon's "white managers were being quarantined, one by one," but line workers were being told the managers were simply going on vacation. At the time, Smalls said, Amazon had not implemented any of the safety measures it currently practices. Only after Smalls was fired did those policies begin, he said.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
Disney Reinstates ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ after Six-Day Suspension over Charlie Kirk Comments
U.S. Prosecutors Move to Break Up Google’s Advertising Monopoly
Nvidia Pledges Up to $100 Billion Investment in OpenAI to Power Massive AI Data Center Build-Out
U.S. Signals ‘Large and Forceful’ Support for Argentina Amid Market Turmoil
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
Vietnam Faces Up to $25 Billion Export Loss as U.S. Tariffs Bite
Europe Signals Stronger Support for Taiwan at Major Taipei Defence Show
Indonesia Court Upholds Military Law Amid Concerns Over Expanded Civilian Role
Larry Ellison, Michael Dell and Rupert Murdoch Join Trump-Backed Bid to Take Over TikTok
Trump and Musk Reunite Publicly for First Time Since Fallout at Kirk Memorial
Vietnam Closes 86 Million Untouched Bank Accounts Over Biometric ID Rules
×