An Article was published recently detailing our work in collective bargaining/unionizing at Amazon that details the retaliation Amazonian employees have faced

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/30/disabled-amazon-workers-discrimination

Amazon told a disabled employee to “just move closer” instead of WFH. An Amazon employee who suffered multiple strokes and can no longer drive asked for remote work as a disability accommodation. Instead of granting it, Amazon suggested they move closer to the office or take public transit.

We are calling on leadership to change how disability accommodations are handled. If you’ve had a similar experience or believe this process needs to change, it’s time to speak up!

This is just one of many similar stories from Amazonians who have had accommodations denied when they have real, verified disabilities. 

This is NLRB Union protected collective organizing activity at Amazon. We have sent the Petition to management as Amazonians with disabilities and demanded an official response by June 27th 2025 from the Management listed on this Petition. So far Amazon has failed to respond or engage in discussions with our demands  

This is the first ever Corporate Disability Union/Collective Bargaining group at Amazon made by those with disabilities for those with disabilities.


This letter outlines specific policy deficiencies, the damages they inflict, the legal violations involved, and our demands for comprehensive reform.

_____________________________________________________________________

Dear Amazon Leadership: 

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy

S-Team

Beth Galetti - SVP, People eXperience and Technology

Eric Sjoding - Director, Employee Relations Amazon

Bob Rathbun - President

Jenna holsberger - Manager, Operations Disability and Leave Services Amazon)

Elayna Feltus Sr. Manager Talent Acquisition

Ian Wilson - VP and Global Head, Human Resources

Theunis Kotze - Sr. Manager, US Accommodations

Megan Smith - Head of People Accessibility at Amazon

Brent Jaye - President, Amazonian Experience and Technology

 ___________________________________________________

Widespread Discrimination and Harm Experienced by Employees with Disabilities
Recent surveys and polls conducted among Amazon employees with disabilities reveal alarming trends:

-93% of employees with disabilities polled stated that current policies are harmful and have negatively impacted them according to a Google poll.

-71% reported that more than 50% of their accommodation needs have been refused or unmet.

-50% indicated that they faced hostile work environments, including gossip, mistreatment, or discrimination after requesting accommodations or disclosing disabilities.

-92% reported a lack of an accessible accommodation process,

-84% of responses affirmed that practices such as adding unlisted travel requirements after hiring are discriminatory or retaliatory.

-77% disabled employees relate with being told they do not qualify for roles despite meeting basic criteria. 

-92% experienced unfair treatment, including derogatory comments, denial of promotions, assistance, or resources.

-77% identified a lack of accessible tools, procedures, or communication channels.

-92% reported a lack of clear policies regarding accommodations, follow-ups, or responses, leading to confusion and further marginalization.

-Nearly 70% expressed fear of requesting future accommodations due to previous retaliation, threats of demotion, or job loss.

-80% felt that management does not take complaints or reports of accessibility issues seriously.

-Approximately 60% reported being placed on leave, pivot, or focus after requesting accommodations according to a blind poll.

-According to a blind poll, nearly 90% that experienced accommodation denials reported it resulted in additional harm, including increased pain, stress, or injury.

Our Demands

In light of these facts, we call upon Amazon to undertake immediate, comprehensive reforms to ensure full compliance with the ADA and to foster an inclusive, respectful workplace:

1. Implement a Transparent, Effective Interactive Process
All accommodation requests must be met with timely, documented responses, exploring all viable options, including alternative accommodations, in addition to reassignment. Must include the 7 or more accommodation methods listed above in this document

2. Guarantee Remote and Flexible Work Arrangements for those with disabilities
Employees must retain the right to work remotely or with flexible schedules if medically necessary, supported by proper documentation. Right now, even with 2 or more doctor recommendations of work from home due to medical necessity, Amazon still denies these requests. A recent post on slack remote-advocacy of a person who met with the VP stated that only 10% of roles are remote eligible and they go to executives and top performers. This would seem to violate the ADA as there should be no limit and what actually counts is the doctor notes and disability and accommodation requests and rationale. So those with disabilities should not be excluded from remote WFH due to some arbitrary illegal policy set by management 

3. Cease Automated Denials and Ensure Individualized Review
Disallow AI-based automatic rejection systems; all decisions must involve human review and consideration of individual circumstances.This goes beyond just denials, but the entire algorithm used by Amazon HR that assists them in selecting choices. Much of this process is automated or semi-automated. A complete publishing of the algorithm behind accommodations and rationale for approval and disapproval should be published to ensure review by Disabled employees, Amazon Disability Union group and to ensure transparency and accountability. 

4. Revise hiring, Reassignment and Leave Policies
Extend time-frames, guarantee pay matching, and establish transparent procedures that do not arbitrarily dismiss employees based on vague communication gap language. Further publish rationale behind putting workers on STD leave while at the same time requiring them to work up to 40 hours a week with reassignment, these appear contradictory and potentially illegal. Provide transparency and an explanation around why out of 5000 roles in the US, none can accommodation work from home as an accommodation. Since this was officially stated by the Accommodations team, then this must be addressed. Additionally, remove false barriers during application and hiring processes, such as new requirements being added to 90% of roles for those with disabilities, and those with disabilities being told they don’t meet basic qualification despite Amazon stating in their policy that people should apply “Even if they don't meet all qualifications” and despite an employee meeting the basic requirements. These are just some of the false barriers placed for those with disabilities. 

5. Ensure Accessibility of Tools and Procedures
All communication channels, reporting mechanisms, and workplace tools must be accessible to employees with disabilities.

6. Enforce Anti-Retaliation and Create Safe Reporting Mechanisms with transparency 
Implement strict policies and oversight to prevent retaliation, and establish confidential channels for reporting discrimination and safety issues and penalties for management who violate these provisions. These also must be published.

7. Provide Ongoing ADA and Disability Rights Training
Management, HR, and relevant personnel must receive regular training to ensure compliance and foster an inclusive environment. Further, there must be new processes created and new policies developed in coordination with the disability Union Group to ensure policies are updated on an ongoing basis to continually improve. 

8. Address Workplace Safety and Accessibility Issues Promptly
Conduct regular audits and swift corrective actions to address hazards and physical inaccessibility.

9. Create Clear, Consistent, and Compliant Policies
All policies affecting employees with disabilities must be published,  transparent, accessible, and in full compliance with the ADA.

10. Establish Independent Oversight and Accountability
Appoint an independent body to monitor compliance, investigate complaints, and ensure enforcement of disability rights policies. The rationale and frameworks must be published to the disability union for full transparency. 
 
11. HIPPA and Investigative details:                                                  
Clearly transparent policies published around HIPPA protection, use of automated systems and AI system in accommodations processes, publish transparent policies around investigative systems and processes and how complaints of discrimination and retaliation are handled. Prevent the sharing of investigative details and HIPPA with non need to know.

12. Removal of arbitrary timelines, deadlines, regarding, accommodations, medical documentation requests
For example if additional medical records are requested, additional time must be provided to account for that request. If delays are caused by Amazon, additional time must be given to account for those delays without the employee being penalized.


13. Removal of policies preventing collective bargaining.
For example, they attempted to intimidate during the process of organizing and creating this very petition, providing legal resources, EEOC contacts, and polling by labeling such protected activity as solicitation. They actually removed at least13 petitions from Internal Disability related Amazon Slack channels and Union Disability collective bargaining slack channel in verifiable violation of NLRA and NLRB Concerted organizing laws. Further they removed posts from multiple members, and gave many warnings to multiple members in the group telling disabled employees to remove their posts or else, and then removed slack access from a lead organizer in order to prevent ongoing discussions, discredit the campaign and stop the movement right when it was gaining steam. It also created a chilling effect seen till this date by responses and thoughts of those within the group who are afraid to speak up. These sorts of organizing are fully protected under NLRA/NLRB concerted protected activities, EEOC anti-retaliation laws, ADA laws, TitleV||. Amazon must immediately stop all interference, retaliation and refusal to bargain with this disability union group at Amazon. Further they must allow the Union group to offer suggestions on how to improve the process and must implement ongoing union input in all ways to ensure every voice is heard. Amazon must also apologize for their repeated NLRA, retaliation, interference violations and due to the harm they have caused. 

 

The National Labor Relations Board, the federal agency that is meant to protect federal worker rights, has recently weighed in on employers suppressing workers’ organizing efforts on workplace Slack accounts: in October 2024, the NLRB issued a complaint against Apple, alleging the company was interfering with workers’ rights to collectively advocate for improved working conditions on Slack.
---What this confirms is that Amazon is violating the same statues as Apple violated in a previous case. This precedent proves that Amazon's ongoing behavior is a violation of the NLRB.
 

Conclusion
It means in essence, that those with temporary disabilities, veterans, short term disabilities, or severe long term or permanent disabilities may not be able to apply to any position (Due to exclusionary policies) and may fear even applying due to a risk that any position will have new requirements added later contrary to their accommodation requests. For up to 70 million disabled Americans, this effectively excludes them from working for Amazon or even applying for amazon. For Amazon, the Fortune 2 company, one of the largest in the world (Second largest employer worldwide, with over 500 Billion in revenue per year and over 1.4 million employees,) this is simply unacceptable. Last week we did a search on Amazon's own portal and it shows around 5,000 jobs available in the United States currently and at least 20K jobs available worldwide. In at least one example, an employee requested that the accommodations team provide 30 jobs that match their remote disability accommodation request needs, Amazon responded with “We searched and did not find any available” There was not even 1 position out of 5,000 open roles that can accommodate a severely disabled employee? This sort of behavior happens all the time. Fixing these issues are not optional, these affect the very livelihoods of those with disabilities, whether they can put food on the table or not. Those with disabilities cannot always just find another job, some r wrongfully fired or when experiencing these issues may then go bankrupt, face additional medical issues or go homeless. The requests in this document are not nice to haves. They are not just because we want this, they are necessary to properly be accommodated and to adhere to the ADA. It requires a change of policies, procedures in a transparent way and with input from actual employees with disabilities at Amazon.

Amazon has a clear legal obligation—and a moral imperative—to respect, protect, and uphold the rights of its employees with disabilities. The systemic discrimination, retaliation, and policy failures documented here not only violate the ADA but also erode trust, harm individual health, and compromise the company’s integrity. We demand immediate action to reform these policies, foster a truly inclusive workplace, and uphold the rights of all employees.

We look forward to your swift response and concrete steps toward meaningful change.

Sincerely,
Members of remote-advocacy, PWD at Amazon
Employees with Disabilities at Amazon

For the full petition please find it at the following link:
https://www.scribd.com/document/876166032/Amazon-Urgent-Need-for-Amazon-to-Comply-With-the-ADA-by-Reforming-Policies-That-Discriminate-Against-Employees-With-Disabilities