A lawsuit filed in US federal court on Monday accused Amazon of keeping women and Black employees down while publicly talking up the need for diversity and social justice. Charlotte Newman, who is Black and heads Underrepresented Founder Startup Business Development at Amazon Web Services, said in the suit she has been harassed, sexually assaulted, and kept from advancing to positions she deserved in the corporation.
“Like so many other Black and female employees at Amazon, Charlotte Newman was confronted with a systemic pattern of insurmountable discrimination based upon the colour of her skin and her gender,” attorneys argued in the lawsuit.
“Amazon works hard to foster a diverse, equitable, and inclusive culture, and these allegations do not reflect those efforts or our values, We do not tolerate discrimination or harassment of any kind and thoroughly investigate all claims and take appropriate action,” an Amazon spokeswoman said in reply to an AFP inquiry.
Newman said she was hired as a public policy manager at Amazon four years ago, quickly doing work typically assigned to higher-level employees and paid less than white co-workers. In June of last year, she filed a written complaint about harassment by a male executive and “discriminatory attitudes” expressed by managers at Amazon, according to the suit. Later that year, she filed a complaint with the Office of Human Rights in Washington, DC, the filing said.