On March 28, according to foreign media reports, the US e-commerce giant is facing a class action lawsuit by employees due to unauthorized use of employees’ rest and meal time.

An Amazon California distribution center employee claimed in the lawsuit that the company failed to provide employees with necessary meal and rest time. This lawsuit has now been transferred to the US Federal Court, and the attorney representing the plaintiff is seeking to expand this lawsuit into a mass action case. The lawsuit was first filed in the San Francisco County Superior Court in February this year and was transferred to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on Friday.

Lovenia Scott is a former employee of Amazon's warehouse in Vacaville, California. He claimed that the company could not arrange the necessary 30-minute time for employees' meals. The lawsuit alleges that when employees do get the meal time they need, in order to handle the work at any time, the portable wireless phones they carry must still be kept in working condition, so their meal time is sometimes compressed.

Amazon occupies employees' time outside of work, and there are other cases. Sometimes, in order to prevent employees from taking property from the workplace, employees often need to go through the employer’s inspection procedures when they leave work. The time it takes for employees to accept the search and whether they need to be paid by the employer is often a labor dispute. A focal point. In 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that employees of Amazon's warehouse in Nevada did not enjoy the employer's compensation for the time spent in such searches after get off work hours.

Earlier this month, the California Labor Commission Office imposed a fine of $6.4 million on Amazon and an independent contractor it worked with. Because the state investigation found that Green Messengers, an independent contractor that Amazon cooperates, paid drivers too low, arranged them to work 10 hours a day, and could not guarantee the driver's meal and rest time.

Scott claimed that in accordance with the dining schedule of Amazon's Vacaville, California, many employees eat at the same time. Due to the need to line up to swipe the card when dining, the meal time of the employees behind the long line is actually compressed, because the waiting time in the line is also included in the dining and rest time. Scott's allegations also claimed that there was a "prolonged understaffing" in shifts, which also harmed some employees' rest time.

In addition, the lawsuit also claims that when performing many tasks, workers must use their personal mobile phones to complete the tasks, and employees are not compensated in this regard. From October 2016 to January 2019, Scott worked at Amazon's warehouse in Vacaville, California. She also said that Amazon did not pay her final salary in time.

In the past few days, Amazon has been arguing with US senators through the social media Twitter, countering some accusations against Amazon. These accusations allege that some Amazon delivery drivers are so tired that they have to urinate in the small bottles they carry because they are too busy to go to the bathroom. Although Amazon has fought back against these accusations, news reports from many media support these accusations against the company.

Regarding whether Amazon has a union in Bessemer, Alabama, next Monday is the deadline for voting. If the vote is passed, this will be the first Amazon union in the history of the United States.

In response to the above litigation news, Amazon did not respond to media requests for comment as of Saturday local time. (Tianmen Mountain)

Source: NetEase Technology Report, translated by Google Translate