Amazon temporarily won a class action lawsuit in California: full reimbursement for home and office expenses of some employees

According to news in the morning of March 8, Beijing time, Amazon won a class action lawsuit representing nearly 7000 employees on Tuesday, local time. The lawsuit requires Amazon to reimburse employees for telecommuting from home during the COVID-19 epidemic.

Vincent Chhabria, the San Francisco district judge, said the plaintiff, David David Williams, had failed to prove that Amazon's company-wide policy was not to reimburse employees for Internet access, cell phone and other expenses, and the judge rejected his motion to identify these employees as a group.

The judge said that of the 7000 members of the proposed group, more than 600 received an average of $66.49 in reimbursement for family Internet access, and some were reimbursed in full.

Williams' group motion was negatived, meaning he could move a revised motion later.

Amazon didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Craig Ackermann, Williams' lawyer, said he planned to file a new motion to exclude 619 employees who received claims from the proposed class action case.

"We are very happy and happy to accept the challenge from the court and try again after some discoveries," he said.

Williams sued Amazon separately in 2021 and filed a class action lawsuit last year. He sued Amazon for violating California's law that employers reimburse employees for reasonable telecommuting expenses.

In January, Chabria vetoed Amazon's motion to withdraw the case. Amazon said it did not owe any reimbursement because the expenses were incurred by a home order issued by the government and were not any decision of Amazon.

Williams' lawyers have filed similar lawsuits against several other companies, including IBM, Fox Broadcasting and Oracle. Some of these lawsuits have been settled, and some companies have agreed to provide telecommuters with an allowance of up to $83 a month to cover home-based expenses.