A former Amazon manager says that her supervisor had her investigate job applicants’ social media accounts to determine their race and gender. When she objected to the order, she says she was fired, according to NBC.
Lisa McCarrick filed a wrongful termination suit against Amazon on Monday in the Superior Court of California, Alameda County. She also claims retaliation, failure to prevent discrimination and violation of the state labor code.
McCarrick also sued for violation of California’s Equal Pay Act, alleging she made less than her male counterparts.
She was reportedly hired in July 2018 as a loss prevention manager and was promoted to regional manager after five months. At this time, her supervisor asked her to review job candidates’ social media accounts and profiles “for the purpose of ascertaining race/ethnicity and gender,” NBC quotes from the lawsuit.
In September, McCarrick reportedly submitted a written complaint voicing her concerns about the directions to peruse applicants’ social media pages and addressed the pay disparity as well.
Two month later, NBC reports, McCarrick was called into a meeting with human resources and her director where she was terminated despite a record of positive performance evaluations.
Per NBC, the suit further states: “During the meeting in which she was informed of her termination, it was communicated to her that her direct supervisor had admitted to utilizing social media accounts for the purpose of ascertaining race and ethnicity.”
The official reason for McCarrick’s firing was “not meeting expectations.”
An Amazon spokesperson said that while the company couldn’t comment on pending legal proceedings, McCarrick’s allegations “are just not accurate.”
“At our core, we fundamentally believe that diversity, inclusion, equality, and equal pay for equal work are not just good for our teams and our business, it’s just simply right,” the company spokesperson concluded.
changing america copyright.
