Amazon said it was investigating the allegations in the lawsuit. “Amazon is working hard to promote a diverse, fair and inclusive culture, and these allegations do not reflect those efforts or our values,” said a spokesman. “We will not tolerate any form of discrimination or harassment and will thoroughly investigate all claims and take appropriate action.”
In her complaint, Charlotte Newman, a 38-year-old black woman living in Washington DC, said Amazon Web Services hired her to work as a public policy manager four years ago. although she had applied and said she was qualified to work as a senior manager at a higher level, this is a practice Newman says is routine.
“Many of Ms. Newman’s colleagues saw a consistent practice of paying black workers less than white workers in similar circumstances, and an almost total lack of black representation in and very few women in the higher echelons of the group’s leadership”, Newman’s attorneys wrote in the complaint filed in federal court in Washington, DC.
The complaint also accuses the company of taking black workers ‘off-grade’ when they are hired – ‘dropping them a level below the job they are applying for and for which they were or will perform’.
In the lawsuit, Newman says she waited nearly three years to get promoted to the higher level she originally applied for “despite getting and doing the work of workers at the higher … level.” She also says she was sexually assaulted and harassed by a senior male employee before filing a written complaint about the alleged incident last June.
The complaint indicated that the senior male employee had been fired.
Newman’s attorney, Douglas H. Wigdor, said it is too early to determine damages, but the claim would be in the “millions of dollars”. He said Newman has decided to stay with Amazon despite how she has reportedly been treated.
“She’s going to try to change from within, which is why she’s so brave,” Wigdor said.
Amazon told Recode that the company disagrees with the story’s characterization of Amazonian culture, claiming that the facts presented were “based on the opinions of a small number of individuals.”
“Teams across Amazon have hired hundreds of thousands of black workers and thousands of black executives, and our retention data and employee surveys show that they have similar attrition and greater job satisfaction and a sense of inclusion than their non-black colleagues,” said Amazon. Recoding. “We recognize that we have work to do, including increasing the representation of Black at all levels, and we have set – and met – aggressive goals to double the representation of Black Vice Presidents and Directors by 2020 and are committed to doing so. to be done again in 2021. “
Regarding the union effort, Amazon spokesman Heather Knox told CNN Business in January that “we opened this site in March and have since created more than 5,000 full-time jobs in Bessemer, with an average wage of $ 15.30 an hour, including full health care vision and dental insurance, 50% 401 (K) match from day one; in safe, innovative, inclusive environments, with training, continuing education and long-term career growth. “