May 20, 2021
Retail giant Amazon faced five new lawsuits on Wednesday from women who were former employees of its corporate and warehouse divisions.
The plaintiffs, ranging in age from 23 to 64, accused the retail giant of gender and racial bias, claiming the company favors men over female employees and has superiors who vilify them.
Two plaintiffs are Black, one is Latina, one is Asian-American, and one is white.
They filed suit in federal courts in Arizona, California, Delaware, and Seattle, Amazon’s home base.
Cindy Warner, one of the plaintiffs, was a former gay Amazon executive. She accused a male manager of openly calling her a “bitch,” an “idiot” and a “nobody,” and that Amazon terminated her services after learning that she had hired a lawyer.
Pearl Thomas, the African-American plaintiff, said an HR employee continually downplayed her concerns about how she was being treated.
Amazon has denied the allegations, saying they are baseless and unsupported by any evidence.
The lawsuits were filed by Wigdor, the same law firm that handled the sexual misconduct cases of Harvey Weinstein, who has since been convicted.
Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, recently said the company needed to take better care of its workers and that more representation was needed in the retail giant’s leadership positions.
For more information, read the original story in Reuters.
