Apple faces setback in bias case filed by ex-worker of Pakistani background

Anita Nariani Schulze's lawsuit says two of her former supervisors at the company were a Hindu Indian and a Muslim Pakistani.

Apple Inc. failed to persuade a judge to dismiss a wrongful firing claim by a former company engineer who says she was discriminated against--by two male East Asian supervisors—based on her ethnic Pakistani background.

California state court Judge Sunil R. Kulkarni in San Jose tentatively ruled Wednesday that the woman can move forward with her claim she was fired unlawfully.

The judge wrote that even though Anita Nariani Schulze had resigned her job voluntarily, she meets the legal standard for wrongful termination because she claims she left only after being subjected to a pattern of continuous discrimination.

Schulze’s lawsuit, filed last year, opened