A lawsuit brought against Amazon by New York Attorney General Letitia James over the company’s worker safety during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as alleged worker retaliation, has been dismissed by an appeals court in New York, says a Tuesday report from the Associated Press.
James’ lawsuit alleged that Amazon potentially exposed workers to the COVID-19 virus at two Amazon facilities in New York City and that the company illegally retaliated against workers who raised concerns over warehouse safety.
The reason the appeals court gave for dismissing the lawsuit was that federal labor law preempts state labor law, so the National Labor Relations Board should be the forum for disputes to federal labor law instead of the states. The appeals court also said that the lawsuit’s efforts to make Amazon comply with the state’s COVID-19 workplace guidelines no longer applied since those guidelines have been lifted. James had argued that her suit should force Amazon to take more care of its workers.
“Amazon and its leadership banked billions of dollars during the COVID-19 pandemic, and as the crisis rages on, the health and concerns of the workers continue to be ignored,” she said last year.
