Amazon employees sign an internal application to the company to give workers leave to vote.

The petition urges Amazon to pay U.S. workers full pay to vote on or before election day. Election Day falls on Tuesday, November 3 in the United States. Many states allow voters to cast their ballots at polling stations ahead of election day.

The petition, signed through Amazon’s internal ticketing system, was signed by more than 4,000 tech employees on Tuesday evening. Employees raised the request by marking “+1” or commenting below the post.

Several U.S. companies, including Facebook, Apple, Uber, Twitter, Starbucks and Walmart, have given their employees time to vote. Amazon, with 876,000 employees worldwide As of August, Walmart is the second largest private employer in the US.

Amazon employees who supported the petition criticized Amazon for being below the bar in this regard compared to other U.S. corporations.

Employees expressed concern that the long lines at polling sites to balance the need to vote and report work, and that confusion over where and how to vote would make pandemic even more challenging. Polling sites in states where voting began earlier, including Texas and Georgia, already have long queues and hours of waiting time.

“We are less than a month away from the 2020 US election,” the petition said NBC News. “I urge the company to give all U.S. employees a paid day / shift off, which can now be used between election days and November 3,” he said. “

A spokesman for Amazon told CNBC that the company allows employees to ask for time in person.

In all 47 states where voting is done in person, employees who do not have enough time before or after the scheduled working day to vote can request and be given leave, ”the spokesman added. “Hours and salaries paid to employees vary by state in accordance with local law.”

The lawsuit was probably funded by Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, an employee advocacy group. The company called Develop a comprehensive climate change plan along with other initiatives. The group recently backed warehouse workers who criticized Amazon’s response to the corona virus pandemic.

AECJ also examined Amazon’s work practices after the two leaders of the group, former Amazon user experience designers Emily Cunningham and Maran Costa, were fired in April. Cunningham and Costa said they were fired in retaliation for their continued criticism of Amazon and after supporting warehouse workers’ corona virus security concerns. Amazon said it had expelled Cunningham and Costa for repeated violations of domestic policies.