Newman v. Amazon.com
| Docket Number | 21-cv-531 (DLF) |
| Decision Date | 31 March 2022 |
| Parties | CHARLOTTE NEWMAN, Plaintiff, v. AMAZON.COM, INC. et al., Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Columbia |
Charlotte Newman brings this action against her employer, Amazon.com Inc. and Amazon Web Services, Inc., two of its employees Steven Block and Shannon Kellogg, and its former employee Andres Maz. She claims that the defendants discriminated against and harassed her due to her race and sex. Before the Court are the Amazon Defendants' (Amazon.com, Amazon Web Services, Block and Kellogg) Motion to Partially Dismiss Plaintiff's Second Amended Complaint, Dkt. 34, and Defendant Maz's Motion to Dismiss Second Amended Complaint, Dkt. 38. For the reasons that follow, the Court will grant in part and deny in part both the Amazon Defendants' and Maz's motions.
Charlotte Newman, a black woman, has been employed at Amazon Web Services, Inc. (Amazon) for five years. Second Am. Compl. ¶¶ 72, 87, Dkt. 30. She has an M.B.A. and has worked on Capitol Hill in various economic and financial services policy roles. Id. ¶¶ 78, 83. In October 2016, she began interviewing for the role of Senior Manager, Financial Services on the Public Policy team at Amazon, a Level 7 position. Id. ¶¶ 88, 91. According to the job description, the employee in that role would represent Amazon “before the financial sector . . . in the U.S. and countries such as Canada and Mexico.” Id. ¶ 92. In November, Newman was instead offered the role of Public Policy Manager, a Level 6 position. Id. ¶ 91. Defendant Steve Block, then a Senior Manager, told her that the role she was being hired for would cover only the United States, not other countries, and that there was no room for negotiation on compensation. Id. ¶ 93. The L6 manager position “came with substantially lower compensation” than would have been offered for the L7 position. Id. ¶ 33. She accepted the Level 6 offer “after a call with the recruiter voicing her objections and hesitation.” Id. ¶ 91. Newman started work as a Public Policy Manager in January 2017. Id. ¶ 87.
Newman claims that she was qualified for an L7 position at the outset, and that her white male colleagues who were hired at the L7 level had “less job experience than she did.” Id. ¶ 102. And two white women hired for L6 public policy roles had “significantly less relevant experience” than Newman did, and “generally did not have graduate degrees.” Id. ¶ 103. Plus, she alleges that within a few months of starting the job, she was performing work that was at least at the L7 level, including public policy work related to Latin America. Id. ¶ 96. Indeed, she claims that her “international role and regular responsibilities meeting with senior government and AWS officials . . . were in line with L7 and even L8 job duties.” Id. ¶ 106. She highlights her other responsibilities that resembled those of managers working at levels above her, including devising strategy plans, formulating the company's approach to new regulations, serving as a project lead, meeting with senior business leaders, and securing meetings with senior officials, among others. Id. ¶ 114. And she points to four unnamed male employees who performed the same duties, two of whom had coverage areas that were “arguably narrower” than Newman's, yet were awarded higher compensation and hired at, or promoted to, a higher level. Id. ¶¶ 116-19. These men either had comparable qualifications or fewer years of relevant experience than did Newman. Id. Further, two white female employees, with fewer years of experience and inferior qualifications, “received higher compensation for performing work in Senior Manager (Level 7) roles that were substantially equal in skill, effort, and responsibility and occurring under similar working conditions as what [Newman] was doing during the relevant period.” Id. ¶ 121. And they performed similar duties, though their roles were “arguably narrower in scope and impact than [Newman's] role was at the time.” Id.
Ultimately, Newman was promoted to an L7 role as Head of Financial Services in October 2019, nearly three years after she started at Amazon. Id. ¶ 101. But she claims that white employees were “promoted at a faster pace than Black employees, ” pointing to two white men who were hired for L7 roles and were elevated to L8 positions. Id. ¶¶ 104, 107. She also notes that a “significantly less-experienced and less-qualified” white woman who started in an L6 Public Policy job four months after Newman was promoted was elevated “two Levels (from 6 to 8) in the time that [Newman] has worked at Amazon.” Id. ¶ 108. Another less-qualified white woman on the Public Policy team was promoted from L6 to L7 within a year and a half. Id. Newman alleges that her experience is representative of Amazon's frequent “‘de-leveling' of Black employees when they are hired (i.e., dropping them a level below the job they applied and were qualified for or will be performing).” Id. ¶ 4. Plus, she claims that there is often a “longer wait for promotions for Black employees and women.” Id.
Newman's complaint further alleges that a culture of discrimination pervades Amazon. She points to the “dearth of Black representation, particularly in its top corporate ranks, ” id. ¶ 268, including in the highest levels of the Public Policy team, id. ¶ 10. With other members of the Public Policy team, she discussed the concern that “women and underrepresented minorities were not being promoted in the same way or getting the same opportunities as white men”; they drafted a report regarding the issue in 2019. Id. ¶ 230. Newman also claims that she was subjected to discriminatory treatment and remarks by other Public Policy employees, including her manager, defendant Block, and his boss, defendant Kellogg. See, e.g., id. ¶¶ 189-229. For example, Block allegedly told her that she was “too direct, ” “aggressive, ” and “just scary.” Id. ¶ 200. He said that Kellogg shared these views. Id. ¶ 203. She also claims that Kellogg treated black employees worse than he did white employees, including by disparaging their work or discouraging them from joining the Public Policy team. Id. ¶¶ 214-15. And they both allegedly “complained about the personalities of other female employees, ” which they did not do for male employees. Id. ¶ 225. Plus, a white colleague told Newman it would be “funny if [she] took a picture with the ‘Jambalaya' wine bottle, ” id. ¶ 259, and another coworker told her she looked like a gorilla when trying on a black jacket, id. ¶ 262.
The complaint also describes Newman's experience with another member of the Public Policy team, defendant Maz, who was an L7 Senior Manager of Public Policy in 2017 when she began working with him. Id. ¶¶ 124-25. Early on, he gave her a gift of a notebook decorated by his daughter. Id. ¶ 125. When they had dinner on a business trip in October 2017, he called her “beautiful.” Id. ¶ 126. On January 18, 2018, he allegedly “sexually assaulted and forcefully propositioned” her during a business dinner. Id. ¶ 132-33. She claims that he praised her in an “over-the-top” way during dinner, repeatedly calling her “great.” Id. ¶ 134. He got up to sit next to her and put his left hand on her lap, “in proximity to her genitalia and on her inner thigh, ” after which he “grabbed and groped the upper thigh of her right leg.” Id. ¶¶ 136-37. After dinner, when she was waiting for an Uber, Maz “badger[ed] and implore[d] her to go home with him to have sex.” Id. ¶ 141. She refused and told him the next day that his conduct crossed the line. Id. ¶¶ 143, 147. Throughout the year and into 2019, she altered her behavior to avoid coming into contact with him. Id. ¶ 150. But she claims he sexually harassed her again on September 19, 2019 in Seattle, when they were at a hotel bar with colleagues. Id. ¶¶ 163, 166. When Newman said she was leaving, Maz “insisted that she stay, laughed, and yanked hard on her hair, ” which was in long braids. Id. ¶ 167. He said, “You can leave this behind, ” while pulling her hair. Id. ¶ 168. Newman interprets this as “an unmistakable mockery of [her] hair as a Black woman.” Id. Later that night, Maz locked arms with her and said, “Let's pretend we're boyfriend and girlfriend.” Id. ¶ 172-73.
Newman claims that Maz acted harshly toward another black female colleague “due to her refusal to engage in a course of action that she felt was a violation of Amazon's policies.” Id. ¶ 156. And that employee “observed that [Maz] did not treat white or Latina female employees in a similar manner when they recommended an approach that differed from his recommendations.” Id. He allegedly provided negative feedback about this employee, contributing to the denial of her promotion and causing her to be pushed out of her team. Id.
Newman further alleges that Maz assigned work to her and supervised teams of employees that she was on, continuing until mid-2020. Id. ¶ 154. She claims that Kellogg relied on Maz for his impressions of Newman, and that Maz's feedback on her work was used by other managers to “mak[e] decisions regarding her compensation, eligibility for promotion, and other terms and conditions of employment.” Id. ¶¶ 153-55. According to Newman, her “progress at Amazon was held up for years by Mr. Kellogg and Mr. Maz by proxy.” Id. ¶ 155.
On June 19, 2020, Newman filed a written complaint with Human Resources about Maz's sexual harassment and the discriminatory treatment she faced from others, including Block. Id. ¶ 296. The investigation found that Block had made stereotypical comments, but he kept his position. Id. ¶ 300. And the company did not help her avoid contact with Maz. Id. ¶¶ 301-03. On September 17,...
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