Overview
- Three Amazon engineers who spoke at Seattle City Council hearings about regulating large AI data centers filed a complaint Thursday with the Seattle Office for Civil Rights alleging the company investigated them and threatened discipline for their public testimony.
- The workers say separate HR or employee-relations meetings followed their testimony and that one staffer was told the inquiry could lead to termination, which they describe as retaliation for protected political speech.
- Amazon says it is enforcing its communications policy because the employees may have appeared to speak as company representatives, and the company denies it told staff they would be fired.
- The dispute follows the City Council’s unanimous June 9 vote to impose a one-year moratorium on new large data centers and sits against a longer history of clashes between Amazon and the activist group Amazon Employees for Climate Justice.
- Seattle’s civil-rights office will decide whether to investigate and could order remedies such as reinstatement, back pay, or damages, a process that could shape local rules for data centers and set new limits on employer responses to employee political speech.