Amazon will investigate allegations of discrimination and harassment within its Amazon Web Services (AWS) unit, following an employee petition that criticized AWS’s culture, The Washington Post reported. More than 550 Amazon workers signed the petition, which calls out AWS for its “underlying culture of systemic discrimination, harassment, bullying and bias against women and under-represented groups,” the Post reported. The petition further alleges that Amazon’s system to investigate claims of discrimination are “not fair, objective or transparent.”
The petition pointed to allegations from former AWS employees:
- In May, five women sued Amazon, alleging race and gender discrimination. One of the women, Cindy Warner, worked in the AWS division and had accused a manager of making homophobic comments. When she hired a lawyer, Warner said she was fired in retaliation.
- Last August, former AWS employee Laudon Williams wrote in a LinkedIn post that he left the company because he saw instances of what he considered gender discrimination.
The petition was sent to new Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, the former head of AWS, and current AWS chief executive Adam Selipsky, the Post reported. Selipsky later wrote an email to the petition’s author that said Amazon was hiring an outside firm to investigate. The petitioners want the company to conduct an independent investigation of AWS, to be completed by October 30th.
Amazon did not immediately reply to a request for comment Friday.