Seven Pregnant Employees Sue Amazon over Alleged Discrimination

Seven pregnant warehouse workers of Amazon, filed a lawsuit against the company accusing the retail giants of discriminating against them because of their pregnancy. The women, who worked with the company, were fired over the last eight years.

One of the women, who filed the lawsuits, Beverly Rosales said she was fired from her job only two months after she had informed her manager at Amazon that she was expecting a baby. Rosales, who filed her suit in the month of January also, said her bosses hassled her about how much time she was taking to use the bathroom and how her work pace slowed during her pregnancy.

Rosales said, “Amazon wants to push out as much product as possible. They also need as many people that don’t need accommodations to work there in the warehouse. They care more about the numbers than the well being of their employees”.

Amazon has clearly denied that it never monitors the length of bathroom breaks for employees. In a statement, an Amazon spokeswoman said, “It is absolutely not true that Amazon would fire any employee for being pregnant as we are an equal opportunity employer”.

The statement further added, “We work with our employees to accommodate their medical needs including pregnancy-related needs. We also help and support new parents by offering various maternity and parental leave benefits”.

The Seattle-based retail giant employs nearly 600,000 people across the world, faced criticism for its poor treatment towards employees on earlier occasions too. So far six such cases were settled out of court.

In the past one year, the company has made several efforts to highlight the benefits it offers to its warehouse employees. Last year November, it raised has the starting pay to $15 an hour and assured it would start advocating for a higher federal minimum wage in the US, which is $7.25.