New York — NEW YORK (AP) — A former Amazon delivery driver has filed a lawsuit accusing the federal civil rights agency of abruptly and unlawfully abandoning a sex discrimination case and others like it after an executive order from President Donald Trump.
The former Colorado driver’s lawsuit demands that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission resume investigating her claims that Amazon discriminates against female drivers by failing to provide adequate bathroom breaks.
The lawsuit is the latest example of workers and others scrambling to find recourse Federal agencies drop their cases In response to Trump’s change to the nation’s civil rights enforcement infrastructure.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which enforces civil rights laws in the workplace, decided last month to throw out any complaints based on it. “Disparate Impact Responsibility” Which argues that apparently neutral policies can be discriminatory if they impose unnecessary barriers that harm different demographic groups.
The EEOC’s decision came in response to an April executive order directing federal agencies to deprioritize the use of disparate impact liability. The Trump administration says disparate impact assumes that any racial or gender imbalance in workplaces is the result of discrimination and leads to practices that undermine meritocracy.
The former driver, Leah Cross, filed a motion Tuesday asking the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to halt the EEOC’s new rule that prohibits investigations and prevents the agency from enforcing them.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has already done so The only lawsuit was dropped Arising from a disparate impact liability charge, a case alleges that the background screening practices of convenience store chain Sheetz discriminate against Black, Native American and multiracial job applicants.
Separately, the agency declined Lawsuits on behalf of transgender workers The new complaints have come under a higher level of scrutiny, following Trump’s executive order declaring that the government would only recognize two non-changeable genders.
It’s not clear how many worker complaints involving disparate impact liability or LGBTQ+ workers have been sidelined by the EEOC. In her lawsuit, Cross asked the EEOC, which handled more than 88,000 discrimination charges in 2024, to give the court a list of the disparate liability charges it closed.
The EEOC referred questions about the lawsuit to the Department of Justice, which declined to comment.
Cross, who worked as a driver from August to November 2022, filed suit with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) two years ago, arguing that the company’s delivery schedules make it nearly impossible for drivers to find time to use the restrooms. An EEOC investigator told her attorney last month that she was closing her case because of the disparate impact rule, according to the lawsuit.
Amazon declined to comment on Cross’s case but referred the AP to its policies regarding its drivers, who deliver packages in Amazon-branded vehicles but work indirectly for the company through third-party companies called Delivery Service Partners. Amazon says its technology builds in methods that ensure time for two 15-minute rest periods and a 30-minute meal break. The company also said its Amazon Delivery app provides a list for drivers to see nearby restroom facilities and gas stations.
But in an interview with the AP, Cross said it was so difficult for her to stop taking breaks that she had to pack a Shewee — a portable urination device for women — as well as a change of pants “in case I ended up accidentally urinating on myself.”
Cross’s lawsuit against the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says the agency is legally obligated to investigate all charges based on disparate impact liability, which Congress codified in the Civil Rights Act of 1991.
The EEOC “is not allowed to dismiss an entire class of accusations without considering their facts simply because the president doesn’t like the type of discrimination on which those accusations are based,” said Carla Gilbride, an attorney with Public Citizen Litigation Group, one of the organizations that filed the lawsuit.
Gilbride was general counsel for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission until she was fired last January, along with two Democratic commissioners. The process of clearing paved the way For the Trump administration to root out diversity and inclusion programs, roll back protections for transgender workers, and advance religious rights. ________
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