06-02-2021
In late May 2021, five more women filed individual lawsuits against Amazon alleging discrimination and retaliation. Each woman, with ages ranging from 20+ to 60+ something, claims they suffered retaliation from their white managers after complaining about bias in race, gender, or sex. The women are Black, Latina, or Asian-American; one of the women is white. Wigdor LLP represents all five women along with an Amazon Web Services Manager who filed suit against the company last March.
In response to the litigation, Amazon stated, “We are conducting thorough investigations for each of these unrelated cases, as we do with any reported incidents, and we have found no evidence to support the allegations.”
Diana Cuervo, a 40-year-old Latina woman, claimed her white male supervisor made racist remarks such as, “Latins suck,” “How is a Latin like you working here?” and, “You are a Latina woman, I need to be careful every time I talk to you.” Cuervo lost her job within weeks of complaining to human resources about his behavior and just a few days after reporting a gas leak at her work facility. The 64-year-old Black litigant claims her boss used the “n-word” in reference to her after he believed she had disconnected from a video call. She also claims another supervisor told her, “You don’t want to be an angry Black woman.” Not long after complaining about her boss, her supervisor placed her on a performance review plan. Amazon shareholders will likely vote early next month on whether to have an independent audit to “assess the company's policies and practices on civil rights, equity, diversity, and inclusion.”