Supreme Court greenlights lawsuit over Amazon's wage-theft from warehouse workers

Amazon and its contractors are notorious for their wage-theft from warehouse workers, who are required to endure lengthy, unpaid delays while they wait to have their bags and bodies searched for stolen goods; a group of workers sued Amazon and one of its contractors, Integrity Staffing, under a Nevada state law.

Amazon and Integrity Staffing -- who call the workers' claims "grossly inaccurate" -- tried to have the case thrown out, going all the way to the Supreme Court. But this week, the Supremes denied cert to Amazon and Integrity, refusing to hear their objections, meaning the workers' claims can proceed.

In its 2014 ruling in the case, the Supreme Court decided that under a 1947 law that amended the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, companies do not have to pay employees for the time they spend undergoing security checks.

The workers subsequently pressed their allegations under state law and added Amazon as a defendant. The case was consolidated with similar ones in federal court in Kentucky.

U.S. Supreme Court rejects Amazon warehouse worker wage appeal [Andrew Chung/Reuters]

(via Naked Capitalism)

(Image: Scott Lewis, CC BY)