The accusations of unfairness and racial discrimination continue against tech giant Amazon, which now faces a federal lawsuit from a current employee. On March 1, a Black female Amazon employee filed a lawsuit against the Seattle-based company, claiming that she and other Black employees were passed over for promotions and that the company discriminately paid her and fellow Black co-workers less than their similarly situated White colleagues.
The 38-year-old woman cited continuing discriminatory practices at Amazon, for which she has worked for the past four years.
Black Employees hired to lower positions, lawsuit claims
The woman alleged that Amazon hired her for a less senior position, knowing that she possessed the qualifications for the more senior position for which she had actually applied. It took three years for a promotion to that original position, even though she consistently performed the work of managers at that higher level.
In the lawsuit, the Amazon employee said the company had a lack of Black and female representation in upper management positions. Her attorneys also accused Amazon of consistently hiring Black employees to lower positions than the positions for which they applied.
Recently, a news report claimed that Black employees at Amazon received harsher evaluations and infrequent promotions compared with their non-Black workmates in other examples of alleged systemic racism at the company.
