A jury in Michigan sided with Amazon in a three-year-old discrimination dispute brought by an ex-manager, who accused the company of discriminating against him because he is a Muslim of Syrian descent and later firing him for speaking up about his treatment.
Abdullah Haydar, a former senior software development manager in the company’s Seattle and Detroit offices from 2012 to 2015, sued Amazon and three of his former supervisors — Garret Gaw, Peter Faricy and Joel Mosby — in 2016. Several of Haydar’s original claims, including retaliation and discrimination based on marital status were dismissed last year, but allegations of discrimination based on religion and nationality made it through to trial.
The jury decided Tuesday that Amazon and Faricy did not discriminate against Haydar on the basis of religion or nationality. Separate from the trial, claims against Gaw and Mosby were also dismissed.
Haydar told GeekWire that he is disappointed in the jury’s verdict, and he hasn’t made any decisions regarding an appeal. Amazon declined to comment.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Haydar is now the site lead for LinkedIn’s New York research and development office. After his stint at Amazon, he worked as a vice president of engineering at agriculture tech startup FarmLogs and advertising exchange HookLogic, which was acquired by Criteo. Haydar is also an adjunct professor at The City College of New York.
The lawsuit filed in 2016 alleges Haydar “was repeatedly subjected to demeaning comments directed at his national origin, religion, and marital status, given false and derogatory performance reviews, passed over for promotion in favor of less successful Caucasian peers, and denied transfers and other career opportunities.”
Two of the managers involved in the suit, Gaw and Mosby, still work for Amazon in the Detroit and Seattle areas, respectively, according to their LinkedIn profiles. Faricy left Amazon last year to join entertainment giant Discovery, Inc. Along with several other ex-Amazon executives, Faricy is leading a new Discovery office in the Seattle area working on enhancing the company’s streaming offerings.
