Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) is calling for the Biden administration to investigate Amazon’s distribution of employee benefits in light of new reporting by The New York Times.
The newspaper reported this weekend that the e-commerce giant has been shortchanging new parents, patients dealing with medical crises and other vulnerable workers on leave.
Workers have been fired due to faulty attendance software and struggled to return to work amid a backed-up and confusing human resources system, according to the Times’s report.
Rubio, who is calling for an investigation by Biden’s team and the Department of Labor, has his own gripes with Amazon — namely its decision to stop selling books criticized as being anti-transgender and excluding organizations deemed as hate groups from participating in its charity program.
“There are plenty of American businesses that are loyal to our country, respect their employees and want the best for their communities, but Amazon is not one of them,” he said in a statement.
“The company has more than enough resources to be the country’s self-appointed woke censor — banning conservative books and blocking traditional charities from participating in its AmazonSmile program — but apparently not enough to properly administer benefits owed to its employees,” he added.
Rubio made similar arguments about Amazon’s status as a premier “woke” corporation when throwing his support behind a unionization movement at a Bessemer, Ala., warehouse.
That election is likely to be run again after a local National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) officer determined Amazon had interfered in the vote by pushing for the installation of a mailbox in front of the building during the mail-in election.
Rubio opposes the PRO Act, a sweeping labor reform law passed through the House that supporters say would shift the advantage during NLRB elections away from employers to workers.