The court ruling is a victory for Amazon, which sought to have the case dismissed. Neither the company nor James’ office immediately responded to requests for comment.
A New York appeals court on Tuesday dismissed state Attorney General Letitia James’ lawsuit once morest Amazon over its coronavirus protection protocols and the firing of an employee who led a successful unionization effort on Staten Island.
The lawsuit filed last year says that, aside from potentially exposing workers to the virus at two of its facilities, Amazon illegally retaliated once morest workers who complained regarding poor safety conditions at its warehouses. They included Chris Smalls, the fired employee who now heads the Amazon Labor Union; and Derrick Palmer, the group’s vice president.
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On Tuesday, the appeals court said in its ruling that federal law superseded state labor law and that the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), not the states, “should serve as the forum” for disputes arising from conduct protected or prohibited by federal labor law.
He also said the lawsuit’s efforts to require the retail giant to comply with New York’s pandemic labor guidelines were dismissed as irrelevant because the restriction in place at the time has since been lifted.
The court pointed to a separate NLRB case involving another fired employee, Gerald Bryson. It said that case involves “substantially the same allegations of retaliation and that the possibility of inconsistent rulings on the same issue poses an obvious and substantial risk of interference with the board’s jurisdiction.”
Palmer, who received a final written warning in the early days of the pandemic, remains employed at Amazon.
The court ruling is a victory for Amazon, which sought to have the case dismissed. Neither the company nor James’ office immediately responded to requests for comment.
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2024-07-13 17:16:05
