Amazon Workers' Lawsuit Alleging Lack Of Safety Against COVID-19 Dismissed By Court

A lawsuit against Amazon Inc AMZN that alleged lack of worker safety during the COVID-19 pandemic was dismissed by a New York judge on Monday, as reported by CNBC. The lawsuit could still be taken up with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), a regulatory agency of the United States Department of Labor.

What Happened: The lawsuit — filed in June by workers from Amazon’s Staten Island facility, also known as the JFK8 fulfillment center — alleged unsafe working conditions and lack of protection against COVID-19.

Amazon spokesperson Lisa Levandowski claimed, in a statement to CNBC, that the health and safety of employees is the most important priority for the e-commerce giant.

Judge Brian Cogan ruled that “someone has to strike a balance between maintaining some level of operations in conjunction with some level of protective measures” while sidelining the worker's lawsuit, CNBC noted.

Why Does It Matter: The dismissal didn't go down well with the advocacy groups supporting the workers' claims. It remains uncertain if the aggrieved parties and the support groups will reach out to OSHA for grievance redressal.

On Oct. 1, Amazon said in a blog post that out of a sample size of 1,372,000 frontline employees, over 19,800 employees had contracted the virus between March 1 and Sept. 19.

Price Action: AMZN stock fell 1.04% to close at $3,004.48.

Photo by Soumit on Flickr