Amazon discriminates against pregnant women, seven lawsuits have said

Enlarge / A woman works at a packing station at the 855,000-square-foot Amazon fulfillment center in Staten Island on February 5, 2019. (credit: JOHANNES EISELE/AFP/Getty Images)

Over the last eight years, Amazon has faced at least seven lawsuits from pregnant women who worked at Amazon warehouses and say they were fired after the company refused to accommodate their needs during pregnancy, a CNET investigation by Alfred Ng and Ben Fox Rubin has revealed.

Amazon’s vast network of warehouses makes the company one of the nation’s largest employers. And the company has long faced criticism for the grueling requirements imposed on warehouse workers.

A big concern for pregnant workers is limits on bathroom breaks. Amazon’s software tracks everything that happens inside the factory and strictly limits how much “time off task” an employee can take during the day. If a worker hasn’t packed a box or performed another task in five minutes, software sends a supervisor over to investigate.