Amazon wont provide entitled vision and dental

[Gatlin121]

Hello,

I have been working for Amazon in Arizona for over a year. I have been in eager need and anticipation to receive dental coverage through the company. Which is usually available 3 months after employment. (Dental and vision)
Due mistakes made by my employer, My advancement in the company kept getting postponed and/or denied causing me not to be eligible to receive the benefits. they have also acknowledged that i should have had this a long time ago.

My teeth have been breaking in the mean time waiting for insurance. I've pleaded with HR for awnsers to why they havint provided my benefits But they don't seem interested in my well-being. My Dental issues are becoming very severe and this whole thing is exhausting and depressing me. I don't wanna be there anymore but I don't want to quit, just go look for another job that offers benefits. I worked to hard for my eligibility here.

Is it ethical for a company this size to neglect to provide me with benefits such as Dental?
I've been informed that my insurance will kick in next month but as far as I'm concerned it's too little too late for the broken teeth I've had since.

Everyone I work with has the vision and dental. I have no reasonable explaination to why I do not.

May I seek damages or worker compensation of some sort?

Can I hold then accountable for this?
I have records of the my complants about the issue, Month after month of communications from me following up with with my concerns gone unresolved.


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[cbg]

It is not clear from your message. Please answer yes or no.

Are you, currently, eligible for the benefits under the plans stated eligibility rules? I am not asking if you should be and I am not asking who made any errors that caused you not to be, should that be the case. We'll get to that later. For now, I only want a yes or no, are you currently eligible and if so, for how long have you been?

 

[Zigner]

My teeth have been breaking in the mean time waiting for insurance. I've pleaded with HR for awnsers to why they havint provided my benefits But they don't seem interested in my well-being. My Dental issues are becoming very severe and this whole thing is exhausting and depressing me. I don't wanna be there anymore but I don't want to quit, just go look for another job that offers benefits. I worked to hard for my eligibility here.

Your dental issues didn't just begin in the time that you've worked for Amazon. What steps have you taken to mitigate the damage?

 

[Gatlin121]

It is not clear from your message. Please answer yes or no.

Are you, currently, eligible for the benefits under the plans stated eligibility rules? I am not asking if you should be and I am not asking who made any errors that caused you not to be, should that be the case. We'll get to that later. For now, I only want a yes or no, are you currently eligible and if so, for how long have you been?

Right now, I am currently waiting for benefits to be available to me. Which I'm told is going to happen after November 23rd.
It's a little tricky to answer your question because the eligibility I'm speaking of is only offered to "Blue badge Associates".

They didn't make me an official blue badge associate until 8/25/19. (I started in late October 2018). this after months of email and telephone Communications between myself and HR or on site personnel.

According to the Site Manager, I should have been eligible right when I got my blue badge. And I should have got my blue badge after 90 days of employment. Not to mention I had perfect attendance at the time and nore anything to prevent me from promoting.

I've been making that strong argument to them begging the question to why do I keep falling through the cracks?

I hope this answers your question.

 

[Gatlin121]

Your dental issues didn't just begin in the time that you've worked for Amazon. What steps have you taken to mitigate the damage?

I buy over-the-counter treatments and temporary solutions to suffice until I can go see a professional. I've been purchasing these tooth filling kits which was doing the trick until the wall of my tooth broke. Now there's no tooth to fill. It's just a hole was Jagged pieces of tooth sticking out of my gums. The tooth broke at work by the way but I doubt that would be covered under workers comp

 

[PayrollHRGuy]

The tooth broke at work by the way but I doubt that would be covered under workers comp

Not unless it happened because of a workplace accident. And the fact that you have a history of dental problems would pretty much prove that it didn't.

 

[Gatlin121]

Not unless it happened because of a workplace accident. And the fact that you have a history of dental problems would pretty much prove that it didn't.

Does it make any difference that I've been inquiring about dental benefits sense my original eligibility point? The reason why stuck it out with this company is to get the benefits. My teeth have broken that time. Due to lack Professional Care. I can't afford to pay out-of-pocket which is why I've been so patient. And to add assault to injury I've been employed long enough that the new people (that I have trained) have already received their blue badge and benefits before me.
Its quite humiliating. I have been very vocal to my managers and HR about the severe Dental issues I'm facing. Why would they allow a newcomers to advance before me? You know? I'm the only one being treated this way.

 

[PayrollHRGuy]

Does it make any difference that I've been inquiring about dental benefits sense my original eligibility point?

Not in the least.

I have been very vocal to my managers and HR about the severe Dental issues I'm facing.

Your dental issues are not your employer's problem.

Why would they allow a newcomers to advance before me?

Maybe they are better workers.

 

[Gatlin121]

Not in the least.



Your dental issues are not your employer's problem.



Maybe they are better workers.

Maybe they're better workers?
That's very asinine.

 

[PayrollHRGuy]

Maybe they're better workers?
That's very asinine.

Why do you think it is asinine? You asked

Why would they allow a newcomers to advance before me?

Being better employees is the most likely reason newer hires have advanced faster than you have.

Do you think there is another reason? It certainly isn't because they don't want to foot the bill for your teeth.

 

[Gatlin121]

It's asinine because I came here for help and you seem to be assuming doubt for my work ethic. I'm not going to sit here and pat myself on the back. All the way up to about last month I was a model employee. Perfect attendance. Never late. Didn't take days off. no write ups. I'm respectful and a hard worker. It's insulting that you would read my statement and dismiss my patience and resolve. The facts are I should have been moved ahead. Even my managers acknowledge that. But due to (I don't know if I should call it a technicality) they cut a half hour off my days right before the promotion conversion to make me ineligible for the blue badge promotion. And then lied to me about the reasons behind it. I need help. Ask me questions. The whole story isn't on here. Because the more you learn about how and why this keeps happening the more ridiculous it becomes. It's discrimination.

 

[PayrollHRGuy]

It's asinine because I came here for help and you seem to be assuming doubt for my work ethic. I'm not going to sit here and pat myself on the back. All the way up to about last month I was a model employee. Perfect attendance. Never late. Didn't take days off. no write ups. I'm respectful and a hard worker. It's insulting that you would read my statement and dismiss my patience and resolve. The facts are I should have been moved ahead. Even my managers acknowledge that. But due to (I don't know if I should call it a technicality) they cut a half hour off my days right before the promotion conversion to make me ineligible for the blue badge promotion. And then lied to me about the reasons behind it. I need help. Ask me questions. The whole story isn't on here. Because the more you learn about how and why this keeps happening the more ridiculous it becomes. It's discrimination.

What is the technicality? You didn't seem to know what it was when you asked the question I answered.

 

[Gatlin121]

Perhaps I'm not articulating myself correctly. I'm trying to give the play-by-play without going into the whole scenario. But the technicalities I speak of are exactly this.

After my seasonal employee status was coming to an end I was offered to stay on as a regular part-time associate. Just like most of my fellow colleagues. But right before the conversion took place a few employees (myself included) was "randomly" selected to move to a later shift and minus a half hour off our day.
I originally lobbied to keep my same position and time but eventually I accepted it because it was either that or exit the company.

Now when conversions came up not too long later, I was expecting to be converted, because again had a clean record with perfect attendance. I was denied. Other employees with not such clean records received the promotion.
(When I went to go find out why. "I asked if I could have done better?" and all the supervisors I spoke with said I was doing a great job. And they don't know why.
I later found out I wasn't eligible for the conversion solely because they took 2 hours off my week with the new schedule. That's one technicality. I spoke with the site supervisor and he said that should have never happened. But I'm going to wait for the next conversion.

The next time I had to wait another three months for the conversion cycle to take place. And at this time we had a new on-site manager and I express to him what has been happening to me. He took interest and said he will help me get my benefits and blue badge. When the time came, He said get ready you're going to be converted soon. He gave me a date to go sign up and apply. When I went to go sign up it wasn't available, so he said wait a week and I'll see what's going on. After waiting that week he later told me (2weeks later) that he was mistaken. That conversions was a week before that. So I'm going to have to wait another three months. Technicality two.

After this, I decided to file an Ethics complaint with the company about the situation. It's a third party complaint line. I don't know how much good it did me.

About a month later I finally got in touch with an HR representative over the email. I asked if I can talk to him in person or on the phone. he said he'll talk to me in 3 weeks. I instead wrote him a long email listing exactly what's going on.
This resulted in them Expediting my blue badge conversion.

So now I have the blue badge credentials but none of the benefits or incentives I had been fighting for. They are giving me everything but benefits. Now they are saying am going to get benefits soon.
it's too late for a lot of things I needed to address prior to. Things that could have been taking care of had I received the benefits I was entitled to in the first place.

 

[Ohiogal]

You are lucky you weren't fired.

 

[cbg]

Just as a point of reference, I do employee benefits for a living. Not just HR, but benefits specifically.

Under no circumstances do you have a workers comp claim. I don't know yet if you have any other kind of claim but you do not, will not, and cannot claim this as workers comp. That's a 100%, carved in stone, you can take it to the bank guarantee. There are no "but what if's" or "not even if..."'s that are going to change that. So let's put that to the side and forget it.

The answer to the question "are you eligible" is crucial. They MAY NOT LEGALLY offer you benefits if you are not eligible for them. It doesn't matter if you should-be-but-aren't; if you aren't, they not only should not, but cannot legally give them to you. So if you are NOT eligible for one reason or another, they can't do anything until you are.

It MIGHT be that if you should be eligible and aren't because of a negligent or discriminatory act on the part of the employer, that you might have some kind of claim but we're a long, long way from establishing that. You're looking for a black and white answer to your question and there isn't one.

Right now I have two questions for you.

1.) Above you said you thought it was discrimination. Discrimination implies a deliberate withholding of a right or benefit. What reason do you believe they are deliberately withholding these benefits? Why do they not want you to have these benefits?

2.) November 23 is four days away. What is supposed to happen on that date?