Amazon employees file civil rights complaint over company probe into data center testimony

An employee group filed a civil rights complaint against Amazon with the City of Seattle on Thursday on behalf of three engineers who allege that the company is wrongly investigating them for testifying before the Seattle City Council in favor of regulating data centers. 

The complaint, filed by Amazon Employees for Climate Justice (AECJ), invokes an unusual Seattle law that bars employers from discriminating against workers based on political ideology. 

Amazon acknowledged the investigations but characterized them differently, citing its policy against employees speaking publicly as representatives of the company without first going through specific procedures. A spokesperson described this as the focus of the internal inquiry, noting that employees are free to discuss working conditions in their individual capacity.

The three engineers — Patrick Schloesser, Darius Irani, and Liesl Wigand — testified June 3 before city council subcommittees in support of regulating data centers. Each opened by noting they were 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 a disciplinary investigation, according to the complaint, a copy of which was reviewed by GeekWire.

“After publicly affirming our right to speak freely, Amazon privately interrogated me, asking me the same questions over and over to try to get me to admit to doing something wrong and made me feel like I 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 came up in response to a direct question and was taken out of context in AECJ’s characterization of what happened.

After reviewing the testimony, “it became clear that they may have been speaking in their capacity as Amazonians and not as private citizens,” said Amazon spokesperson Margaret Callahan in a statement. “We believe it’s important to apply our policies consistently so, just as we would with anyone else, we’re investigating whether there was a violation of our policies and may or may not take action based on what we find.”

She added, “It’s important to note that we don’t tolerate retaliatory behavior.”

Under the city’s Fair Employment Practices Ordinance, the Seattle Office for Civil Rights will investigate the complaint and determine whether there is reasonable cause to support the allegations. Remedies can include reinstatement, back pay, and financial damages.

Following testimony by more than 50 people, including members of AECJ, the full Seattle City Council voted unanimously on June 9 to impose a one-year emergency moratorium on new large data centers inside the city limits.