NEW YORK (Legal Newsline) – It should be a state judge who decides whether New York Attorney General Letitia James is overzealous in her prosecution of Amazon or if the company bungled its response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
That’s according to New York federal judge Jed Rakoff, who on April 9 issued a short order sending James’ lawsuit against Amazon back to New York Supreme Court, where it was first filed. Rakoff has yet to disclose his rationale.
“(T)he Court grants the State’s motion to remand and denies Amazon’s motion to transfer,” Rakoff wrote. “An opinion explaining the reasons for this ruling will follow in due course.”
Amazon wanted James’ lawsuit transferred to federal court in Brooklyn, where the company sued James before she could sue it.
The two sides are locked in a battle over Amazon’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Amazon says it was justified in firing two employees who violated social distancing rules, even putting forth a picture of one of them ignoring orders to quarantine.
It also says the New York City Sheriff’s Office has found it went “above and beyond” compliance requirements at its facility there, and that James’ list of demands exceeds what is appropriate.
“Among other things, the OAG has demanded that Amazon ‘disgorge’ profits, subsidize public bus service, reduce its production speeds and performance requirements, reinstate Mr. Smalls and pay large sums to Mr. Smalls and Mr. Palmer for ‘emotional distress,’ retain a health and safety consultant to oversee safety and production, and adopt safety-related policies it already implemented,” the company wrote in a Feb. 12 federal court lawsuit.
Amazon calls the demands “exorbitant.” Its lawsuit seeks a declaration that AG James lacks the authority to regulate workplace safety responses to COVID-19 and regulate claims of retaliation.
James filed her case in New York County Supreme Court. It says Amazon has failed to institute reasonable and adequate measures to protect workers from COVID-19 at its Staten Island fulfillment center and its Queens distribution center.
“When Amazon employees began to object to Amazon’s inadequate practices and to make complaints to Amazon management, government agencies, and the media, Amazon took swift retaliatory action to silence workers’ complaints,” James’ suit says.
“In late-March 2020, Amazon fired employee Christian Smalls, and in early-April 2020, Amazon issued a final written warning to employee Derrick Palmer. Amazon’s actions against these visible critics who advocated for Amazon to fully comply with legal health requirements sent a chilling message to other Amazon employees.”
James says she will move to dismiss Amazon’s federal lawsuit on jurisdictional grounds or, in the alternative, move to stay the action while her case is pending. She will file that motion on April 16.