Amazon retaliated after employee walkout over the return-to-office policy, NLRB lawyers say

The National Labor Relations Board has filed a ailment against Amazon successful Seattle that alleges the institution “unlawfully disciplined and terminated an employee” aft they assisted successful organizing walkouts past May successful protestation of Amazon’s caller return-to-work directives, issued aboriginal past year.

In February 2023, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy sent an email to the company’s unit outlining caller return-to-work guidelines. Previously, idiosyncratic teams wrong the institution could determine wherever employees were expected to work, but Jassy’s email revealed that starting connected May 1st, 2023, astir Amazon employees were expected to enactment from the bureau astatine slightest 3 days per week. (Some roles, specified arsenic salespeople and lawsuit support, were exempted.)

In response, thousands of Amazon employees signed petitions against the caller mandate and staged a walkout respective months later. Despite the protests and pushback, according to a report by Insider, successful a gathering successful aboriginal August 2023, Jassy reaffirmed the company’s committedness to employees returning to the bureau for the bulk of the week.

The NLRB ailment alleges Amazon “interrogated” employees astir the walkout utilizing its interior Chime system. The worker was archetypal enactment connected a show betterment program by Amazon pursuing their organizing efforts for the walkout and aboriginal “offered a severance outgo of 9 weeks’ wage if the worker signed a severance statement and planetary merchandise successful speech for their resignation.”

According to the NLRB’s lawyers, each of that was due to the fact that the worker engaged successful organizing, and the retaliation was intended to discourage “...protected, concerted activities.”

The sanction of the worker successful the NLRB ailment is redacted. Last year, The Seattle Times profiled 1 of the walkout organizers, who was — after the walkout — enactment connected a show betterment program that the insubstantial describes arsenic “known for being astir intolerable to escape.” A item describing however investigators questioned this peculiar idiosyncratic implicit allegedly encouraging different employees “to beryllium aggravated astatine Amazon” is mentioned some successful the ailment and successful the article.

The NLRB’s wide counsel is seeking respective antithetic forms of remediation from Amazon, including reimbursement for the employee’s “financial harms and search-for-work and enactment related expenses,” a missive of apology, and a “Notice to Employees” that indispensable beryllium physically posted astatine the company’s facilities crossed the country, distributed electronically, and work by an Amazon rep astatine a recorded videoconference. The contents of the “Notice to Employees” was not specified.

Amazon responded to the NLRB’s ailment today, and Brad Glasser, an Amazon spokesperson, shared the pursuing connection with The Verge:

If Amazon and the worker bash not settle, a proceeding is planned with an NLRB Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) successful Seattle connected February 4th, 2025.