A New York State Amazon employee has proposed a class-action lawsuit against Amazon, alleging that the e-tail giant illegally discriminated against her and other employees impacted by disabilities.
Cayla Lyster filed the complaint against the company on Wednesday in New York’s Southern District. The crux of the lawsuit focuses around issues she allegedly faced when working to gain appropriate accommodations related to a disability.
Lyster said the way Amazon handles disability accommodation requests instills fear of termination or retaliation in its employees. She argued that Amazon’s “punitive” absence system causes its employees to “live under constant threat of punishment if they get sick or injured or need time off to care for a family member.”
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What’s more, she said, the company “punished [employees] for absences that are protected by federal and New York State law.”
Lyster has Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, which impacts connective tissues and rendered her unable to perform certain functions in the warehouse, like climbing on ladders or using a manual gripper to pick items off of out-of-reach shelves.
She alleged that, when she took action to document her disability and request reasonable accommodations at the warehouse she works in outside of Syracuse, New York, Amazon “engaged in substantial delay” in providing accommodations and “repeatedly forced her out of work onto unpaid, unwanted and unnecessary leaves of absence when other work was available.”
Lyster’s proposed class-action lawsuit states that, even when she was on Amazon-designated leave, the company drained her unpaid time off (UPT). She noted that, once an employee uses up their designated UPT, they enter what Amazon calls “negative UPT,” which can result in the company sending automatic emails “threatening that if they cannot satisfactorily explain their absences within 48 hours, Amazon will take action pursuant to its disciplinary policy, up to and including termination.”
While Lyster herself has not been terminated for such a reason, the complaint alleged that “similarly situated hourly logistics facility workers have in fact been fired for their negative UPT status…despite their attempts to communicate with Amazon about their absences.”
In addition to the alleged absence-related disciplinary issues employees can face, Lyster alleged that Amazon supervisors failed to honor her accommodations once she eventually received them, and, as a result she “feared being penalized for taking Time Off-Task (TOT) while she waited for help.”
Lyster’s lawsuit accuses Amazon of several violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), including disability discrimination and unlawful retaliation. She also alleges that Amazon violated New York State-specific human rights laws.
Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel said Lyster’s allegations don’t hold water.
“Claims that we don’t follow federal and state laws like the Americans with Disabilities Act and New York State Human Rights Law (NYSHRL) are simply not true,” Nantel said in an emailed statement. “Ensuring the health and well-being of our employees is our top priority, and we’re committed to providing a safe and supportive environment for everyone. Our dedicated accommodations team reviews each request individually to make sure employees have access to the accommodations and adjustments they need, and we continuously evaluate our approach to best address their needs.”
Lyster has requested that the court enjoin Amazon from “further discriminatory actions” that would violate state and federal laws. She noted that Amazon should be required to re-process any class member terminations that were hinged on “allegedly exceeding UPT allowances” and requested that Amazon be directed to pay her for damages related to her “physical and mental injuries sustained because of Amazon’s discriminatory and retaliatory conduct.”
Lyster has asked the judge to certify a class that includes “all persons employed by Amazon in its logistics facilities in New York State as hourly workers from November 12, 2022 up to and including the date of any judgment in this case, who sought or intended to seek a disability accommodation from Amazon.”
The complaint noted that Lyster already filed a Charge of Discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) last year, which was also filed with the New York State Division of Human Rights. In May of this year, the complaint noted, the EEOC “issued a determination finding reasonable cause that [Amazon] violated…Lyster’s rights and that [Amazon’s] policy of sending negative UPT notices to employees out of work awaiting accommodation ‘created a chilling effect.’ In August, the EEOC allegedly issued a notice that Lyster had the right to sue.
Court records show Amazon has yet to respond to Lyster’s complaint and that a judge has not certified Lyster’s proposed class.
The lawsuit comes just a few weeks after New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin accused Amazon of discriminating against pregnant and disabled warehouse workers across the state. Like Lyster, Platkin said the company illegally puts pregnant and disabled workers on leave while they await the results of their accommodation requests and alleged that it makes the process for receiving an accommodation difficult for employees.
