- A black manager at Amazon’s cloud unit is suing over accusations of racial and gender discrimination.
- The lawsuit alleges that Amazon routinely pays and promotes less Black employees.
- It also accuses a former Amazon director of public policy of sexual harassment and assault.
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A black senior manager at Amazon’s cloud unit filed a lawsuit against the company and three current and former executives on Monday, alleging racial and gender discrimination and accusing a former Amazon public policy director of sexual harassment and assault. . You can read the complete process below.
Charlotte Newman, a senior manager at Amazon Web Services, claimed in a lawsuit filed in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia that Amazon routinely paid and promoted less black employees and fostered “shocking racial insensitivity” for lack of sufficient training workplace and anti-discrimination policies. The suit also claimed that managers exhibited a disdainful attitude towards black employees and women, which left Newman vulnerable to sexual harassment and assault.
The lawsuit further claimed that black women and employees were not represented on Amazon because of racial and sexual discriminatory attitudes by company managers. Newman, for example, claimed that her former direct manager at AWS “used stereotyped racial troops when criticizing her about how she talks at meetings”, including calling her “aggressive”, “too direct” and “just scary”.
Newman, a former adviser to U.S. Senator Cory Booker who joined Amazon in 2017, claimed that she was hired at a lower level than she deserved for her qualifications, leading to lower wages and fewer stock awards – what she said increase its wage gap with colleagues by increasing the price of Amazon’s shares.
The complaint alleges that “Ms. Newman, along with other Black officials, is therefore being hampered by a disparity embedded in wages (particularly in terms of equity) and seniority that she will probably never be able to recover.”
“Amazon works hard to promote a diverse, fair and inclusive culture, and these allegations do not reflect these efforts or our values. We do not tolerate discrimination or harassment of any kind and we thoroughly investigate all complaints and take appropriate action. Investigating the new allegations included in this process, “said a company spokesman.
Newman’s lawyer, Douglas Wigdor of Wigdor LLP, declined to comment beyond the content of the complaint.
The tech industry in general has a poor record with respect to wage diversity and equity: last month, Google struck a deal with the Department of Labor to pay nearly $ 2.6 million in back pay due to allegations that the company’s remuneration and hiring practices harm women and Asian employees. Vox recently investigated Amazon’s treatment of black employees.
The lawsuit claimed that Amazon normally paid poorly to black and female employees, giving them lower titles than their white and male colleagues. Very few black employees hold senior positions at the company, the suit said, adding that Amazon’s senior leadership team had no black executives until the summer.
“This imbalance and segregation of duties says a lot about the low priority given by the company in advancing and hiring black employees for corporate functions, and how it makes the escalation of even an excellent candidate and employee like Charlotte Newman much steeper,” process said.
The lawsuit alleged “contemptuous attitudes” towards black and female employees by management “left her vulnerable to sexual harassment and aggression by a senior co-worker” who “put her left hand under the table and pressed Mrs. Lap. Newman, next to his genitals, then grabbed and groped the upper thigh of his right leg. “
The complaint specifically cited comments made by Andy Jassy, the CEO of Amazon Web Services recently appointed to succeed Jeff Bezos as CEO of Amazon’s general organization later this year. He called his tweets condemning police violence against black Americans as “superficial gestures”. Improving diversity in the workplace is considered a focus for Jassy.
“Just as Mr. Jassy expects better from legal and political leaders in the United States, Ms. Newman and Amazon employees expect better from their employer’s executive and managerial leader,” said the complaint.
Read the entire process below:
Are you an Amazon Web Services employee or have ideas to share? Contact reporter Ashley Stewart through the Signal encrypted messaging app (+ 1-425-344-8242) or email ([email protected]).