An Amazon employee advocacy group is accusing the tech giant of intimidating employees who spoke in favor of data center regulations during a recent Seattle City Council public comment session.

As the council took up a vote to set a one-year moratorium on large-scale data centers in the city, three Amazon employees gave their testimony on June 3, speaking in favor of regulations around data centers and artificial intelligence.

Before they spoke, each employee said, I'm proud to live in a city where employees are legally protected against retaliation by their employers," referring to the city's fair employment practices ordinance.

The employees were all members of Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, an employee-led advocacy group that has campaigned in support of climate issues at the company for years. They were not calling for an open ban on data centers in the city but rather echoing the group's concerns: that unchecked development of AI technology and infrastructure could damage democracy, the workforce and the environment.

The City Council unanimously voted in favor of the moratorium on June 9.

The employees said they were soon invited to a meeting with a human resources representative, according to a Thursday news release from Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, which filed the complaint on behalf of the employees with the Seattle Office of Civil Rights.

The internal calendar invite didn't provide much information, other than that the company was following up to discuss a "confidential concern."

Darius Irani, an Amazon employee who spoke during the public comment, called the meeting a private interrogation, during which he was asked the "same questions over and over to try and get me to admit to doing something wrong and made me feel like I committed a crime."

The news release said the employees were told they were not currently being disciplined, but the company had launched an investigation that could lead to termination.

"We stand by our members and their legally protected right to act on their beliefs and participate in our democracy," said Amazon Employees for Climate Justice spokesperson Eliza Pan in the news release. "Patrick, Darius and Liesl took a brave, important and protected step to advocate for a better future for all of us and fight back against Amazon's illegal attempts to silence them."

Amazon spokesperson Margaret Callahan said in an emailed statement that Amazon doesn't have plans to fire the employees. She said the company doesn't tolerate retaliatory behavior, but that action may or may not be taken if there was a violation of Amazon's policies.

The company said the employees appeared to speak as representatives of Amazon and not as private citizens.

"While our teammates are always free to talk about their working environment, we have policies against speaking as a representative of the company without following certain procedures — all of which are clearly agreed to by everyone who works at Amazon, and are similar to policies at many other companies," Callahan said.

In the complaint filed with the city's office of civil rights, lawyers representing the group said the employees made no mention of Amazon during public comment and "testified on their own time based on publicly available information."

Irani said he testified because he believes governments need to set guardrails for the fast-moving tech industry.

"Workers need to be involved in these conversations," he said. "We still live in a democracy, not a corporate state, which is why I participated in filing the complaint with my co-workers and AECJ.

Amazon Employees for Climate Justice penned an open letter to Amazon CEO Andy Jassy and the S-team — the roughly two dozen-person group of executives that make up Jassy's inner circle — in November, calling for a slower and measured AI rollout.

Signed by more than 1,200 Amazon employees and over 4,000 workers from other corporations and research universities, the letter demanded Amazon power all data centers with renewable energy and provide a detailed plan for how the company would meet its climate commitments amid the AI boom. It also called for more nonmanagerial voices in how AI is used at the company and a restriction on using AI for surveillance or mass deportation.

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