Amazon allegedly cut deaf worker’s interpreter to 10 minutes a shift

One incident in the complaint captures the alleged safety risk. The worker says she was assigned to direct traffic in the facility’s parking lot – cars, Amazon vans, and semi-trucks moving in and out. She could not hear the vehicles around her. She could not use the radio her teammates relied on. She had no way to coordinate with drivers.

The complaint also alleges Amazon blocked her promotion. Around June 2022, every other worker in her hiring class moved up to permanent “Blue Badge” status – which comes with retirement contributions, pay increases, and health coverage, the filing states. The worker alleges she was told she would not get the promotion unless she agreed to work night shifts, a condition the complaint says was not imposed on anyone else in her group.

She emailed Amazon’s HR department on July 11, 2022, asking for help with the conversion. The complaint says Amazon never responded. She stayed classified as a seasonal worker for more than a year before eventually getting Blue Badge status.

On or about August 4, 2024, the worker quit. The complaint frames her departure as a constructive discharge – where conditions become so intolerable that any reasonable employee would feel they had no real choice but to leave.

What allegedly happened next stands out. After reading her automated exit interview responses, an HR director conducted a follow-up interview with her through a video interpreter, the complaint states. About three weeks later, on or about August 24, 2024, the HR director emailed the worker stating that after a “thorough investigation,” Amazon had “found a violation of Amazon policy or standards of conduct,” the filing alleges. The worker says she has not heard from Amazon since.