On April 23, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued a determination in the case of A Better Balance’s client Scott Stuart, a former Amazon employee. The EEOC found that Amazon violated Scott’s rights and that, for over six years, Amazon engaged in systemic, nationwide violations of its hourly warehouse workers’ rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
Specifically, the EEOC found that Amazon engaged in the following illegal practices when workers requested disability-related accommodations:
- Forced employees onto unpaid leave, then penalized or even fired them for exhausting their Unpaid Time Off while they were forced to stay home.
- Demanded excessive medical documentation, violating employees’ privacy and causing unnecessary delays.
- Failed to train managers on their legal obligations while giving them the power to deny requests for disability accommodations.
- Ignored its obligations to make sure disability accommodations were effectively implemented, leaving employers with accommodations “on paper” but not in practice.
When Scott took time off due to his diagnosis of peripheral neuropathy, Amazon demanded he provide unnecessary medical documentation, then fired him before he could respond. The ADA protects workers with disabilities against retaliation when they request reasonable workplace accommodations.
“The EEOC’s findings of these systemic abuses at Amazon mirror what we have been calling attention to for years. It is significant that even President Trump’s EEOC has now found that Amazon is in systemic violation of two major federal civil rights laws, the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act,” says Inimai Chettiar, President of A Better Balance. “We will fight alongside our clients to hold Amazon accountable and put a stop to these abusive practices. No worker should lose their job because they followed their doctor’s orders and requested a basic accommodation for their disability—not only is it wrong, it’s illegal. No corporate giant is above the law, even Amazon.”
The EEOC’s determination follows multiple other legal actions against Amazon. In November 2025, A Better Balance and co-counsel Vladeck, Raskin & Clark P.C. filed a class action lawsuit against Amazon alleging disability discrimination and seeking to hold the multi-billion-dollar company accountable for its treatment of thousands of hourly warehouse workers across New York State.
This finding also comes on the heels of another EEOC investigation that found Amazon to be in systemic violation of its pregnant workers’ rights. In February 2026, the EEOC found Amazon systemically mistreated its pregnant warehouse employees nationwide in violation of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act by failing to accommodate their limitations related to pregnancy, childbirth, and or related medical conditions, and in some instances forcing them to take leave.
Workers who have experienced similar mistreatment at Amazon are encouraged to contact A Better Balance’s free, confidential legal helpline at 1-833-NEED-ABB or abetterbalance.org/get-help/.