Former Spotify sales executive sues company for alleged gender discriminationSpotify Ceo Daniel Ek Credit Wsj

Former Spotify sales executive sues company for alleged gender discrimination

Former Spotify sales executive Hong Perez has filed a lawsuit against the streaming giant for gender discrimination and defamation. The lawsuit alleges that Spotify was the host of a “boys club” culture that led to “systematic discrimination” against women, and directly names Perez’s prior boss, Brian Berner, as a key perpetrator in the organization of “boys’ trips” that excluded comparatively better qualified women from attendance on trips to large scale events like the Sundance Film Festival in 2016 and 2017.

Perez’s complaint claims that Berner’s ethical misconduct at the company prompted her removal from Spotify’s staff, after Berner supposedly accepted free tickets to Madison Square Garden and carried out an unapproved discounting deal. Perez alleges that her former supervisor blamed her for the code of conduct violations, which led Spotify to fire Perez. Perez’s case maintains that Berner was not only negligent and unprofessional in his company interactions, but “was well aware of [fellow] male employees violating the code of conduct, yet did nothing.”

Perez cites all-male excursions to strip clubs, an HR executive’s comment that his curse word of choice is “c*nt,” and a CFO’s remark that he “does not care about diversity at the company” as further instances of the accused internal hostility at Spotify. “At Spotify, we do not tolerate discrimination of any kind at any level,” a representative for the Swedish media platform told Variety“While we cannot comment on the specific details of a pending litigation, these claims are without merit.”

H/T: High Snobiety

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