A higher-ranking Software Engineer working at the multinational company, Amazon asked the company to compensate its employees for their internet and electricity bills chalked up during the work-from-home period. He went for a legal proceeding of the case after the company brushed off his demand. But a judge in California rejected Amazon’s attempt to dismiss this plea.
Software Engineer David George Williams took this legal action against Amazon claiming that the company has violated California’s Labor Laws. It is mentioned in section 2802 of California’s labor law that the workers of a company should receive all the necessary compensation for their company over any loss or expenses suffered by them during the period of their work.
The Software Engineer thinks of as the company should also be compensating their workers for the expenditure they suffered to build up an impromptu home office space during the lockdown period along with the reimbursement of internet and electricity bills. This charge on the multinational giant was made on behalf of the software engineer and above 4,000 other employees working for the company at 12 different locations in California. According to these employees, the expense of these ranged from $50 to $100 per month when they were asked to do their work from their homes as there was a surge of Covid-19 cases.
In his complaint, Williams mentioned that if he takes the lower range of alleged expenses i.e. $50 the company will still have to recover the damage of $5 million incurred by the 4,ooo or more employees during the relevant period.
Though the legal representatives of Amazon have claimed that compensating the internet, electricity and other bills suffered by the employees during the work from the home period is not the company’s problem. These legal executives defended the company by saying that Williams was asked to stay at home and carry on his work by the Government of the state and he is charging Amazon to pay his utility bills and his expenditure done on a part of his household. Furthermore, the lawyer said that the allegations made by the prosecutor are useless as it is not legitimate for Amazon to pay off expenditures incurred by its employees during a government action.
Vince Chhabaria, a district judge in northern Calfornia has dismissed the Company’s strive to wipe out the case. He also said that Amazon or any other company is not exempted from fulfilling their duties due to a local government’s order. The thing that matters is that Williams and other employees had to suffer additional expenses while giving their service to the company.
