Amazon Must Defend Black Employee’s Race Discrimination Claims

Amazon.com Inc. failed to shake off claims that it discriminated against a Black employee by reducing her responsibilities and putting her on a performance improvement plan.

The ruling, by the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, applied the US Supreme Court’s recent opinion regarding when an employment action is sufficiently adverse to violate federal job discrimination law.

Former Amazon Music employee Keesha Anderson sufficiently alleges that the performance-improvement plan and her diminished responsibilities were adverse actions, allowing her employment-discrimination claim under 42 U.S.C. §1981 to move forward, Judge Arun Subramanian said.

Applying the high court’s reasoning ...