Amazon discriminated against Muslim women at Pittsburgh distribution center, lawsuit says

Three Muslim women who wear hijabs are suing Amazon saying that they were subjected to religious discrimination while working at a Pittsburgh distribution center last year.

Yvette Smith and her two daughters, Tiara Smith and Sadaira Smith, of Pittsburgh’s Marshall-Shadeland neighborhood. filed the federal complaint on Monday alleging religious, race and gender discrimination, hostile work environment, retaliation, battery and negligent supervision.

Amazon spokesperson Sam Stephenson said the company is reviewing the lawsuit.

“Discrimination has no place in our society and is not tolerated at Amazon,” Stephenson said.

The lawsuit alleges that even before the women began working for Amazon, a security guard working at the Roswell Drive location would not allow them to enter the facility to begin the onboarding process. The location is in Pittsburgh’s Fairywood neighborhood.

The complaint alleges that they attempted to go to the facility four times between September and November 2021 to begin new employee training.

“When the Smiths casually attempted to walk into the distribution center, a security guard, having observed their physical attributes and characteristics, including their religious apparel, gender, race and/or perceived race, immediately refused them entry into the distribution center,” the lawsuit said.

The security guard instructed the Smiths to leave and contact human resources, the complaint continued.

They did what they were asked and were reassured that they had been hired. They were told to return to begin their training, the lawsuit said. But when they did so, the same security guard, again, would not allow them inside.

It wasn’t until the fourth visit, in November 2021, that they were finally permitted to begin their new-hire training as warehouse associates.

But even after they began working there, the lawsuit continued, the Smiths were not properly trained by their managers and continued to be discriminated against.

One supervisor said to them: “You’re wearing these (expletive) hijabs and scarves and you need to take them the (expletive) off,” the lawsuit said. The women claimed they were frequently subjected to negative comments about the hijabs.

The lawsuit alleges Amazon was attempting to sabotage the Smiths’ work performance.

The complaint includes allegations that the company did not provide the Smiths with a place to pray five times each day as is required by their faith, and instead forced them to do so in a room set aside for nursing mothers.

The lawsuit also alleges that the women were subjected to sexual comments as well as physical abuse from various male employees, and that Amazon’s human resources department failed to take action.

In one instance, the complaint said, a supervisor forced one of the women to work alongside the man she said assaulted her.

In January 2022, after having made four reports to human resources, the lawsuit said, a supervisor manufactured several false reports against the women asserting work rules violations.

On Jan. 19, 2022, the lawsuit alleges that four security guards physically forced Yvette Smith into an isolated room by herself where they held her for 15 to 20 minutes. When she was released, she and her daughters were suspended without pay and escorted off the property.

“Throughout the duration of the Smiths’ employment, no other employee, even in the most egregious of circumstances, was (confined) into an isolated room and/or escorted off the premises by four security guards,” the lawsuit said. “Undoubtedly, this show of raw force was traumatic, excessive, and deliberately done to humiliate the Smiths in front of their coworkers, especially the matriarch, Yvette Smith.”

The women were told to return to work in April 2022, where they said, they were subjected to even more discrimination.

During the period of fasting during Ramadan, the lawsuit said, a supervisor said to their coworkers, “‘Look at them [(he Smiths) starving themselves.’”

After three more months of harassment, the lawsuit said, the women resigned.

“Amazon failed to redress the Smiths various complaints to the human resources department and other official complaints that they lodged to supervisory employees throughout the duration of the Smiths’ employment,” the complaint said. “Therefore, having turned a blind eye, Amazon knowingly subjected the Smiths to extreme instances of sexual, religious and/or racial discrimination.”