Yahoo Finance Amazon barred employee with Crohn's disease from toilet breaks, lawsuit claims
A former Amazon employee is suing the company for allegedly not allowing him to take toilet breaks despite having a long-term condition that causes inflammation of the digestive system.
Nicolas Stover, who has Crohn's disease, worked an an Amazon call centre in Winchester, Kentucky for just over a year, where he was responsible for answering phones and assisting customers with queries.
Mr Stover informed Amazon during the hiring process and job training period that he suffers from Crohn's disease, an inflammatory bowel condition, according the suit filed in the US District Eastern District of Kentucky.
“Nevertheless, prior to hiring Mr. Stover, the Amazon defendants did not inform him of their unyielding and inhuman policies governing bathroom access,” the suit filed in court by lawyers representing Mr Stover claims.
During a 9 hour shift, Amazon employees are allotted an hour long lunch break and two 15 minute pre allocated breaks. Staff are not allowed to take more than 10 minutes of "unscheduled personal time" away from their desk a day and more than 20 minutes in total a week, according to the complaint.
If an employee uses up their personal time at the start of the week they are unable to take an unscheduled break for the remainder of the week, the suit alleges, adding that if they do, they will be subject to disciplinary action.
Crohn's disease is a type of inflammatory bowel disease which can cause abdominal pain and diarrhoea.
Despite requesting, with supporting evidence from his doctor, for options for unscheduled or emergency breaks due to his medical condition, Mr Stover says that Amazon did not grant him any accommodations. Nor did the company offer to move his desk closer to the toilet, despite his desk being a one-to two-minute walk from the nearest facility.
When prescribed a medication to help ease the symptoms of Crohn's which is administered intravenously, Mr Stover says he requested to be off work roughly once every 56 days to receive the treatment, but says that his request was declined.
Mr Stover was fired from his job at Amazon in December 2017. Despite his involuntary termination not citing any grounds, he says his supervisor told him that he was being fired for “time theft” and that he was taking “too much personal time”. He is seeking a trial by jury and a minimum of $3 million in damages.
The suit comes after Amazon employees in distribution warehouses or “fulfillment centers” as they are called by the company, claimed that they were afraid to take bathroom breaks or a sick day out of fear of being fired.
Amazon employees in a UK warehouse were peeing in bottles to prevent being disciplined for taking a break, claimed James Bloodworth in his recent book Hired: Six Months Undercover in Low-Wage Britain.
Amazon did not respond to a request for comment.
