Amazon’s terrible therapy of warehouse staff is in regulation enforcement’s crosshairs but once more. This time, New York Attorney General Letitia James has filed a motion for a preliminary injunction in opposition to the e-commerce large requesting that the state’s courts mandate it take higher protocols to guard its staff—and rehire a outstanding warehouse employee who was fired the identical day that he’d protested these situations.

That employee, Chris Smalls, was first within the information for organizing a public walkout to be able to protest the corporate’s lack of protections for warehouse staff inside its services. The Staten Island warehouse, JFK8, is one of the company’s largest and serves as the corporate’s key pipeline to New York City correct. Of course, the warehouse’s key location and big scale didn’t cease Amazon from placing staff in unsafe, overcrowded conditions, at the same time as optimistic coronavirus circumstances began piling up on the facility.

The identical day that he held that walkout, Amazon fired Smalls for—within the firm’s phrases—“putting the teams at risk,” by ignoring social distancing tips. The firm solely bothered beefing up its employee protections months later, after dozens of COVID-19 circumstances have been confirmed throughout a number of services and at least one warehouse employee was useless because of this.

But none of those (frankly half-assed) measures saved James off the corporate’s again since then she first went on the warpath in opposition to the corporate. When Smalls was first fired, she put out a statement calling Amazon “disgraceful” for the transfer and ordered a probe into the precautions Amazon was taking to guard its staff in opposition to the virus. Then in February of this 12 months, James fired off a lawsuit in opposition to Amazon over its “flagrant disregard” of its employee’s well being.

While the lawsuit’s nonetheless ongoing (Amazon failed to get it dismissed this previous October), it sounds just like the probe’s lastly executed—and the outcomes don’t look good. According to a statement James issued on Tuesday, the probe uncovered proof that “Amazon’s health and safety response violated state law by not providing reasonable and adequate protection to employees,” by failing to implement a correct COVID-19 tracing program, and following “cleaning and disinfection protocols” that weren’t as much as snuff. James additionally alleges that the corporate’s notoriously invasive productiveness monitoring practices didn’t allow staff to take the precautions they’d want to guard themselves in opposition to potential infections.

On high of all that, James additionally claims that her investigation discovered proof Amazon “unlawfully fired and disciplined workers who reported their concerns about the company’s compliance with these health and safety mandates.” That contains Smalls.

The movement that was filed in New York—which nonetheless must be accredited by a Judge to be able to cross—wouldn’t solely require that Smalls be reinstated. Amazon would additionally want to rent a court-mandated monitor to supervise some main security overhauls in its warehouses, and that features easing up on the methods it displays employee productiveness in order that staff can take the time they should socially distance, wash their fingers, or placed on a dang masks.

We’ve reached out to Amazon for touch upon the movement however didn’t obtain a reply. In a statement to CNET, a spokesperson countered James’ accusations, saying that the corporate follows OSHA steering and is making an effort for its warehouse staff, incurring “more than $15 [billion]” in prices to maintain its staff and prospects protected.

“While we know we aren’t perfect, we’re working hard every day to listen to the experts and keep our teams and communities safe,” she stated.