Amazon Lawsuit: Managers Scoured Job Candidates’ Social Media for Race and Gender Info

Lisa McCarrick filed a lawsuit against Amazon on Monday, alleging two significant problems. The first: she’s paid less than her male coworkers. The second: her manager told her to “scour” job candidate’s social media to determine race and gender/ethnicity and then fired her when she complained.

As with all lawsuits filed, you hear only McCarrick’s story. Amazon said only that her claims are not accurate, and otherwise, they don’t comment on pending legal actions. (This is normal and doesn’t reflect on any company facing a lawsuit.)

McCarrick claims that her managers wanted her to search out race and gender to increase diversity at Amazon. Her lawsuit states: “Although Plaintiff [McCarrick] recognized that AMAZON has been publicly criticized for its lack of diversity in the workplace and Plaintiff supports diversity in the workplace, she reasonably believed that scouring social media accounts for the purpose of ascertaining race and ethnicity was unlawful.”

To keep reading, click here: Amazon Lawsuit: Managers Scoured Job Candidates’ Social Media for Race and Gender Info

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6 thoughts on “Amazon Lawsuit: Managers Scoured Job Candidates’ Social Media for Race and Gender Info

  1. Dear Evil —

    I’ve been reading your posts for 10 years at least and continuously recommend you to others.

    But your statement, “Sure, you can find out that this candidate likes cat videos (a positive)” caught my attention and took me aback.

    Everyone knows (and if I had my way it would be enshrined in the law) that liking cats is a definite negative, is an indicator of future poor performance, and that puppies are so much cuter than kittens.

    The other parts of this article are exactly right, but your cat comment, not so much.

  2. In your article you state:
    ” You cannot discriminate based on race or gender for almost all positions. (There are rare exceptions for gender, but none for race or ethnicity.) ”

    What about acting parts? If you are making a movie about slavery in the south, could you not only hire black people for certain roles?

    1. There’s still no BFOQ for race, but it’s allowed under free speech for acting roles. Weird. Go figure.

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