Inside Amazon’s Paid Time Off: Why System Is Being Slammed As ‘Inadequate’

Amazon was aware of “inadequate service levels,” and “deficient processes . . . prone to delay and error” in their paid-leave system, according to internal correspondence obtained by the New York Times.

The report, which was published Sunday in the Times, revealed many serious flaws in the e-commerce giant's human resources department. Amazon had switched from using outside contractors to manage their paid-leave system to in-house management, and the transition has not been kind to workers.

One Amazon warehouse worker in Oklahoma, Tara Jones, uncovered the problem a year ago. She was on parental leave with a newborn being underpaid $90 of the $540 they owed her. When it went unfixed, she wrote to CEO Jeff Bezos.

That email turned into an internal investigation that found widespread problems with Amazon’s paid leave system, including underpayment of parental, medical, and disability leave. The system even listed some people as fired when it mistook their leave of absence.

The findings from the Amazon confidential report showed that, "for at least a year and a half — including during periods of record profit — Amazon had been shortchanging new parents, patients dealing with medical crises and other vulnerable workers on leave."

Bethany Reyes, an Amazon HR employee, told the Times that the company was "optimized for the customer experience" and stressed that Amazon "was working hard to rebalance those priorities." A company spokesperson told the Times that Amazon continues to identify and repay workers.

Amazon told the Times that the company is still working to name and compensate workers affected, including 179 employees at the Oklahoma warehouse.