Diversity concerns flare up at Amazon after harassment accusations

Amazon on Friday tried to quell concerns among employees about sexual harassment accusations against an executive, sending an email to its staff saying the company would review its policies to ensure that “they are doing their job to provide a harassment-free workplace.”

The email is the first broad internal communication by Amazon since Roy Price, who oversaw Amazon Studios, left the company this week after details of the accusations became public. A lawyer for the woman who has made the accusations said Amazon previously investigated and knew all the details about the episode, which happened in 2015.

Amazon’s handling of Price has set off confusion, debate and finger-pointing inside the company, according to two employees. The people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of confidentiality policies, said numerous employees were heatedly discussing the timing of Price’s departure.

Some current and former employees are suggesting that the scarcity of women at the upper echelons of Amazon could have made the company more lenient toward Price until his actions became a public relations embarrassment.

“I think this is pretty straightforward,” said Julia Cheiffetz, who worked in Amazon’s publishing division for several years, leaving in 2014 to become an executive editor at HarperCollins. “An organisation’s culture is shaped by its leadership. We can talk about how these stories are endemic to certain industries — Hollywood, Silicon Valley — but the larger issue is one of representation. Who is in charge? Who makes the rules? And who enforces them?”

Drew Herdener, an Amazon spokesman, declined to comment.

The episode involving Price occurred in 2015 when he was in a car with Isa Dick Hackett, a Hollywood producer. She told investigators for Amazon shortly after the car ride that Price made unwanted sexual advances toward her.

Price’s career at Amazon continued until last week, when Hackett shared the details of the episode publicly for the first time, in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. Amazon suspended him the day the article appeared, and he left the company on Tuesday.

Amazon’s recent actions took place in the middle of a firestorm over revelations in The New York Times and The New Yorker about another entertainment industry figure, Harvey Weinstein, who has been accused of decades of sexual harassment and abuse. 

© 2017 The New York Times News Service