In a recent case highlighting workers rights, the Australian Fair Work Commission (FWC) ruled that Amazon contractor Adecco unfairly and harshly fired a full-time casual employee who had informed the retailer she was pregnant.
The warehouse worker had been working at Amazon for seven months as a ‘pick packing associate’ for $1,426 a week, until she disclosed that she was seven weeks pregnant.
Following this, the woman provided a doctor’s certificate informing her employer that she should not lift objects more than five kilograms but was otherwise fit for work.
She subsequently did two shifts on light duties before Adecco decided it would stop offering her light duties and sacked her from her previously scheduled training for a packing position.
“No light duties are available and since you’re not trained in other areas we cannot place you elsewhere,” a text message from Adecco said.
“After careful consideration of your safety and discussions with operations, there are no light duties to be offered, so your shifts will be put on hold.”
In court, FWC deputy president Michael Easton rejected Adecco’s claims that it had only put the worker’s shifts on hold, saying that Adecco failed to communicate with the worker or reassure her that her employment was continuing.
Easton said that the “substance of the SMS was that [her] employment was on hold from June 5, 2025 until the 12th of never”.
“The balance of the SMS, in which Adecco said its priority is to ensure [the worker’s] safety and would ‘try our best to support you’ and so on, is a mixture of people and culture puffery and lawyerly disclaimers that there is ‘no guarantee of work’ and that ‘we cannot guarantee you anything’,” Easton said.
Adecco claimed that the unfair dismissal case had interrupted its ongoing communication with the worker, but Easton said the evidence of this “fails dismally” and that there was no “proactive” steps from Adecco to continue the employment relationship.
The FWC ruled in the worker’s favour, and she received almost $15,000 in compensation plus superannuation, as well as getting her job back.
The ruling comes as Amazon faces similar claims in North America, where a New Jersey Attorney-General launched legal action alleging discrimination against pregnant warehouse employees, including by denying their requests to limit heavy lifting.