Former Amazon employees sue over alleged discrimination against pregnant warehouse workers, tell me about this news in (https://www.courant.com/2026/09/09/amazon-pregnant-workers-lawsuit/)

A proposed nationwide class-action lawsuit was filed against Amazon in federal court by four former warehouse employees, represented by the worker advocacy group A Better Balance and the law firm Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel.The lawsuit alleges that Amazon systematically discriminated against pregnant warehouse workers in violation of the federal Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) and New York labor laws.Key Allegations

• Denial of basic accommodations: The complaint states that pregnant workers were denied or experienced significant delays when requesting simple accommodations, such as sitting breaks, access to chairs, extra restroom visits, hydration breaks, lifting restrictions, and leave for prenatal medical appointments.
• Unlawful documentation demands: Amazon allegedly required detailed doctor notes even for routine, basic requests, which workplace regulators have stated violates accommodation rules.
• Penalties and terminations via automated systems: When pregnant workers took medically necessary breaks or missed shifts awaiting accommodation approvals, the company’s automated attendance tracking systems reportedly deducted hours from their unpaid time-off banks or logged the time as “time off-task.” Once those balances were exhausted, workers received disciplinary warnings and were ultimately fired.
• Lactation room penalties: One plaintiff reported being penalized and ultimately terminated after time spent in the facility’s lactation room was logged as unauthorized inactive time.
• Hospitalization incident: Another plaintiff alleged she was hospitalized with severe abdominal pain after lifting heavy packages, only to receive a termination warning the following day because the emergency absence exceeded her allotted unpaid leave time.

Amazon’s ResponseAmazon denied the allegations, stating through a spokesperson that the lawsuit’s claims are inaccurate and omit critical context. The company asserted that it provides pregnancy accommodations to tens of thousands of employees each year and that it approved more than 99.9% of accommodation requests over the past year.Legal Relief SoughtThe plaintiffs are seeking class-action certification to represent thousands of current and former pregnant Amazon warehouse employees nationwide. They are asking the court for lost wages, benefits, compensatory and punitive damages, and structural policy reforms to end the alleged practices.