An Amazon warehouse employee who needed surgery to repair two work-related hernias was fired for “non-attendance” while he recuperated at home from the operation, according to a federal civil rights lawsuit obtained by The Independent.
Although Las Vegas resident Lashone Brown had been granted official medical leave, his complaint says Amazon’s automated attendance system misclassified his absences as unexcused, and “automatically terminated” him five days into his approved two-week recovery period.
Amazon HR “acknowledged the errors were their department’s fault,” but “did not correct them,” the complaint contends, alleging that the company instead took the opportunity to punish Brown for filing a workers’ compensation claim over his on-the-job injuries.
People working in Amazon warehouses suffer musculoskeletal injuries, which include hernias, at a rate four times that of the rest of the industry, according to the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries. A 2024 report by the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions said Amazon’s “relentless efforts to push workers to move faster and its failure to provide a safe environment result in workers getting injured at extremely high rates.”
“Not all people report injuries because they are scared to get taken off their job or told they can’t work over there anymore,” one Amazon warehouse worker told The Guardian. “I have many times come home with bruises from work at Amazon and I experienced my first hernia there.”
Another worker at an Amazon warehouse in Rock Tavern, New York, described her department as “a hernia factory.”
Aside from hernias, a tear in the abdominal muscle wall which can come about due to heavy lifting and straining, Amazon warehouse personnel are prone to all manner of injury, the most common being sprains, strains, and lower back issues.
“It’s as if we’re living in some new Gilded Age, where a corporate giant refuses to recognize employee safety while its founder is the second-wealthiest person on the planet,” Connecticut State Sen. Martin Looney said in 2023, referring to Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, a Donald Trump critic-turned-supporter with a reported net worth of more than $220 billion.
Amazon warehouse workers in the U.S. earn between $18.50 and roughly $22 an hour.
In an email, attorney Matthew T. Hale, who is representing Brown, told The Independent that his client “was terminated by Amazon while recovering from approved surgery for a workplace injury, and we are proud to represent him in seeking the justice he deserves.”
An Amazon spokesperson did not respond on Wednesday to a request for comment.
Brown began working as an Amazon warehouse associate in December 2023, according to his complaint, which was filed February 27 in Nevada federal court.
Warehouse associates pick, pack, and ship orders to Amazon customers, “in some cases, for our super-fast (2-hour or less) delivery service,” the company’s careers page tells prospective applicants. It says candidates must be able to lift up to 49 pounds, push utility carts up to 60 pounds, go up and down stairs, use carts, dollies, and hand trucks to move items around, and to “stand, walk, push, pull, squat, bend, and reach during shifts.”
On January 15, 2025, more than two years after Brown hired on at Amazon, he got hurt at work, “resulting in an inguinal and umbilical hernia that limited his ability to lift and perform regular duties,” the complaint states.
An inguinal hernia is located in the groin area; an umbilical hernia occurs in one’s navel.
Brown then filed a workers’ compensation claim and was given various medical restrictions, including a five-pound lifting limit, the complaint goes on. Amazon complied, assigning Brown to light-duty assignments via a “Temporary Work Placement Acknowledgement,” according to the complaint.
For the next several months, it says Brown took approved leave, returning to work that August “with continued restrictions.”
“Amazon issued a second Temporary Work Placement Acknowledgement, but its automated attendance system failed to recognize his approved accommodation and improperly assigned negative attendance points,” the complaint alleges.
As he prepared for his impending surgery, Brown “repeatedly reported to… Amazon HR that the system was misclassifying his approved leave and accommodations as unexcused absences,” according to the complaint. However, it alleges, HR never did anything about it.
On October 10, 2025, Brown had his hernias surgically repaired, the complaint continues.
“Although he was on approved leave through October 24, Amazon failed to remove him from the schedule, and the system continued to record absences,” it maintains.
On October 15, 2025, “while recovering at home, Amazon automatically terminated Mr. Brown for excessive absences, all of which were actually approved disability-related leave or light-duty accommodations misclassified due to known system errors,” the complaint states.
This, it asserts, was “retaliation for [Brown’s] protected activity” – specifically, his workers’ compensation claim, which can cause a company’s insurance premiums to rise, invite safety audits, prompt attention from regulators, and the like.
Last month, Brown filed discrimination charges against Amazon with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Nevada Equal Rights Commission, according to the complaint. He was issued a so-called right to sue notice and filed suit against Amazon last week.
Brown’s complaint accuses Amazon of various wrongs, among them failure to provide reasonable accommodation, tortious discharge, workplace discrimination, and interference with Family and Medical Leave Act rights, claiming the company subsequently refused to reinstate him.
Amazon acted “with malice… or with reckless indifference or conscious disregard of [Brown’s] rights,” according to the complaint. It says Brown was “subjected to unlawful discrimination, loss of his employment, and loss of income and benefits,” and that he has “suffered physical and mental injury, and will continue to suffer great financial, mental and emotional injury, pain and distress.”
Brown is seeking compensatory, special, and general damages for lost earnings, salary, bonuses, and other benefits; emotional distress damages; and punitive and exemplary damages “in an amount sufficient to… make an example of and deter [Amazon] from engaging in such conduct in the future,” plus attorneys’ fees and court costs.
Amazon, which was served with a copy of Brown’s suit on Monday, now has roughly three weeks to file an answer to the allegations.
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