A former Amazon.com manager from Michigan has lost his lawsuit against his former employer, which alleged religious discrimination.
Jennifer Carsen recently reported on HR Dive’s website that a jury has rejected the claim of Abdullah Haydar, who was a manager for Amazon in both the company’s Seattle and Detroit offices. Haydar alleged that his immediate supervisors discriminated against him because he was a Muslim of Syrian descent, at times making offhand remarks that were “ethnically and religious tinged comments.” Haydar further alleged that the managers named in the case retaliated against him after he complained to Amazon’s human resources department and directly to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.
According to court documents, Haydar’s lawsuit also alleges that in addition to the commentary about his religion and ethnic origin, he was also subjected to negative comments regarding his marital status, given negative and false performance reviews, and passed over for promotions in favor of white colleagues.
Haydar said that during his tenure at Amazon from 2012 to 2015 and after making numerous complaints to HR that were essentially ignored, he wrote to Jeff Bezos twice, as the CEO invited employees to do concerning the work conditions within the company. Although Haydar never heard back from Bezos, he claimed that he was terminated from his position as a technology manager for Amazon a short time later.
Haydar filed his lawsuit against Amazon and three of his supervisors in October of 2016,
Based on the evidence presented by Haydar, a jury decided that Haydar had not provided evidence which proved that his national origin or religion was either the sole reason or motivating factor in the company’s decision to terminate him or that any of the reasons which he presented were the cause of him being passed over for promotion within the company.