Amazon, in a lawsuit filed against it, has been accused of keeping women and black employees down while publicly talking up the need for diversity and social justice. The head of Underrepresented Founder Startup Business Development at Amazon Web Services, Charlotte Newman, who is Black, has said in the lawsuit that she was harassed, sexually assaulted, and was kept from advancing to positions which she deserved in the company.

“Like so many other Black and female employees at Amazon, Charlotte Newman was confronted with a systemic pattern of insurmountable discrimination based upon the color of her skin and her gender,” the lawsuit said.

Also Read | US President Joe Biden shows support for unions of Amazon employees

Newman has asked for her case to be heard by a jury and to be awarded unspecified cash damages.

Responding to an AFP query, an Amazon spokeswoman said that the company works hard to foster ” a diverse, equitable, and inclusive culture.” She continued, “These allegations do not reflect those efforts or our values.”

The spokeswoman said that Amazon is looking into the allegations made in the lawsuit, as she said, “We do not tolerate discrimination or harassment of any kind and thoroughly investigate all claims and take appropriate action.”

Newman, who was hired as a public policy manager at Amazon four years ago, alleged that she quickly did work that was typically assigned to higher-level employees and that she was paid less than her white co-workers.

The lawsuit said that Newman had filed a written complaint about harassment by a male executive and “discriminatory attitudes” expressed by managers at Amazon last year. She also filed a complaint with the Office of Human Rights in Washington, DC, later in 2020, the lawsuit said.

At Amazon, Black employees are put into lower paying jobs, the level that are beneath their qualifications and skills, and the company makes them wait longer for promotions, the lawsuit said.

The suit said that a number of Black women at Amazon, and particularly its cloud services division, have spoken of having their hair touched without consent or being criticized for not being friendly enough.

“Racial and sexual discrimination exists in Amazon’s corporate corridors, not just its warehouses – it simply takes a different form,” the lawsuit charged.

“Amazon has failed to seriously grapple with these issues among its management.”