A group of Amazon employees has said that the e-commerce firm threatened to dismiss some of them for speaking out on climate change issues surrounding it.
According to Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, some workers were informed that they violated company policies by speaking out on climate change issues and were threatened to be terminated.
The so-called threats from Amazon come after some of its employees participated in calls for the company to increase its efforts in addressing climate change. The company claimed that its policy on employees making public comments is not new and covers all of its workers.
In a tweet, Amazon Employees for Climate Justice said that some employees were contacted by the company's legal and human resources teams and questioned about their public comments. The group added: "Some workers then received follow-up emails threatening termination if they continue to speak about Amazon's business."
According to Amazon, the rules were not new and said: "We recently updated the policy and related approval process to make it easier for employees to participate in external activities such as speeches, media interviews, and use of the company's logo."
"As with any company policy, employees may receive a notification from our HR team if we learn of an instance where a policy is not being followed," the company added.
The group is made up of workers "who believe it's our responsibility to ensure our business models don't contribute to the climate crisis". It has called on Amazon to achieve zero emissions by 2030, limit its work with fossil fuel companies, and stop funding for politicians and lobbyists who deny the existence of climate change.
In May, thousands of employees attended the annual shareholders meeting to ask Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos to formulate a broad climate change initiative for the business but the proposal was rejected by shareholders.
However, in September, Bezos announced that the company plans to be completely powered by renewable energy by 2030 and achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2040.
