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Former EA at Amazon sues after being sacked
‘for picking the kids up from school’
Rachel Shafner was EA to Amazon’s
Australian director of operations
when she claims she was dismissed
for asking to leave early to collect her
kids from school while her husband
was in hospital. Shafner was a few
weeks away from having worked at
the tech giant for a year—which would
have qualified her for flexible work
arrangements.
“I would much rather work as best
as possible than have to take carer’s
leave for an unknown period of time
due to my family obligations,” Shafner
said in her request.
Shafner is now suing Amazon for
$274,815 in damages, claiming the
company discriminated against her
because of family responsibilities.
The court application outlines
Amazon’s alleged misconduct,
“Amazon knew that Ms Shafner would
likely request paid carer’s leave in the
event a flexible working arrangement
was not implemented. Amazon
knew that Ms Shafner would become
entitled to request a flexible working
arrangement by about 4 September.
The applicant’s employment was
terminated on 5 September.”
A spokesperson from Amazon refuted
the claims in a release to the public,
claiming that “these allegations are untrue.
As this matter is before the court, we are
unable to comment further.” S
Reskilling is the future, according to new report
The latest World Economic Forum
report, Globalisation 4.0, is stressing
the need for a ‘reskilling revolution’
to maintain employment in the
coming decades.
The report highlights how technology
and automation will continue to disrupt
the job market, and investment in
‘human capital’ is now more important
than ever.
“75 million jobs are expected to
be displaced by 2022 in 20 major
economies,” says World Economic
Forum president, Børge Brende.
But the report also highlights that
with the right education and retraining,
there will be more than 133 million jobs
on offer, just in different fields.
“To proactively realise the benefits
of these changes, at least 54 percent of
all employees will need reskilling and
upskilling by 2022,” Brende contends.
But the process of reskilling is
expensive. Only 25 percent of the
private sector can profitably retrain
their workforce to the levels required,
“suggesting a need for business
collaboration, government investment
and public-private collaboration to
lower costs.” S
Assistant accuses Indian judge of sexual harassment
In India, a former junior court
assistant has written to 22 judges
accusing the nation’s most senior
judge of sexual harassment and
unwanted advances.
She claims that she was the target
of physical harassment by Chief Justice
Ranjan Gogoi, and she and her family
10 Chief of Staff | Issue 2 2019
were harassed and victimised after
she rebuffed him. Gogoi denies the
accusations, saying they are untrue
and an attempt to prevent him from
working on serious cases.
In the affidavit presented to the
judges by the complainant, she claims
that Gogoi “hugged me around the
waist, and touched me all over my
body with his arms and by pressing his
body against mine, and did not let go”.
The former assistant claims that
since submitting the complaint she
has been dismissed from her job, and
her husband and brother-in-law, both
police officers, have been suspended. S