Employees say Amazon reprimanded them for criticizing environmental policy

At least two Amazon employees were told they would be fired if they kept talking about the Seattle-based company’s environmental policies, according to Amazon Employees for Climate Justice.

The Washington Post initially reported that the employees contacted the paper with concerns that Amazon’s business practices are not environmentally sound and contributing to climate change. In particular it relates to Amazon’s cloud-computing business and its relationship with oil and gas companies.

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Maren Costa says she is one of the employees who got an email saying she had violated Amazon’s “external communications policy,” and further violations could end in “termination.”

Costa and others say Amazon’s communications policy is worrisome for workers who want to challenge Amazon to do better.

“It was scary to be called into a meeting like that, and then to be given a follow-up email saying that if I continued to speak up, I could be fired,” Costa told the Post.

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“Amazon’s newly updated communications policy is having a chilling effect on workers who have the backbone to speak out and challenge Amazon to do better,” said Amazon engineer Victoria Liang in a press release. “This policy is aimed at silencing discussion around publicly available information. It has nothing to do with protecting confidential data, which is covered by a completely different set of policies.”

Company CEO Jeff Bezos has previously announced Amazon plans to meet the goals of the Paris climate agreement 10 years early.

With reporting from MyNorthwest