SCRANTON – A Bethlehem woman alleges she was terminated by Amazon for her complaints of sexual harassment and retaliation.
Sandra Sudziarski said in her lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania on July 30 that Amazon.com and Amazon.com DEDC LLC violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act and the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act.
The suit states Amazon hired the plaintiff as a warehouse associate in 2010 and she most recently worked at the Hazleton facility. She alleges in the last year of her time there, she and other women suffered gender discrimination, sexual harassment and derogatory comments.
She alleges in early 2018 at a team dinner, a co-worker asked her if she was “into S&M.” She alleges she filed a complaint with human resources over the remark and while she was told it would be taken care of, she said it was never investigated or directly addressed.
After her complaints fell on deaf ears, the plaintiff alleges she reached out to the company’s owner, Jeff Bezos, and Buckman was fired shortly after.
But Sudziarski alleges the hostility and animosity toward her continued even after a new manager was brought in. After filing other complaints, she alleges she was given a memorandum of expectation and disciplined. The suit states she took a medical leave of absence from March 4 to April 4, and was terminated the day she returned over allegedly violating her memorandum of expectation for gossiping.
Sudziarski seeks pay that she would have received had she not been terminated, punitive damages, attorney’s fees and any other legal relief the court will allow. She is represented by Ari R. Karpf of Karpf, Karpf and Cercutti in Bensalem.
U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania case number 3:19-cv-01315