Amazon employees file a civil rights complaint over the company’s investigation into data center evidence
A group of workers filed a civil rights complaint against Amazon and the City of Seattle on Thursday on behalf of three engineers who say the company wrongfully investigated them for testifying before the Seattle City Council in favor of data center regulation.
The complaint, filed by Amazon Employees for Climate Justice (AECJ), challenges Seattle’s unusual law that bars employers from discriminating against workers based on political opinions.
Amazon acknowledged the investigation but cast it differently, citing its policy against employees speaking publicly as company representatives unless they go through certain procedures. A spokesperson described this as the focus of an internal investigation, and said employees are free to discuss working conditions within their positions.
Three engineers – Patrick Schloesser, Darius Irani, and Liesl Wigand – testified on June 3 before subcommittees of the city council to support the control of data centers. Each opened by noting that they are legally protected from retaliation for speaking out.
A week later, Amazon’s Employee Relations team called them into separate meetings and told them they were under disciplinary investigation, according to the complaint, a copy of which was reviewed by GeekWire.
“After publicly asserting our right to free speech, Amazon secretly interrogated me, asking me the same questions over and over to try to get me to admit I did something wrong and made me feel like I had committed a crime,” Irani said in a statement released by the group.
The complaint says the engineers were told the investigation could lead to termination.
Amazon denied that it threatened to fire the engineers or told them they were at risk of termination, saying the reference simply answered a specific question and was taken out of context in the AECJ’s explanation of what happened.
After reviewing the evidence, “it became clear that they may have been speaking as Amazon citizens and not as private citizens,” Amazon spokeswoman Margaret Callahan said in a statement. “We believe it is important to apply our policies consistently, just as we do for anyone else, we investigate whether there have been violations of our policies and may take action based on what we find.”
He added, “It is important to note that we do not tolerate revenge.”
Under the city’s Fair Employment Practices Ordinance, the Seattle Office of Human Rights will investigate the complaint and determine whether there is reasonable cause to support the allegations. Remedies may include restitution, compensation, and monetary damages.
After testimony from more than 50 people, including members of the AECJ, the full Seattle Council voted unanimously on June 9 to enforce a one-year emergency moratorium on large data centers within city limits.
