A former employee of the World Economic Forum, the nonprofit behind the glitzy annual gathering of business and political leaders in Davos, Switzerland, on Monday sued the group and its founder, Klaus Schwab, for workplace discrimination.
In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, Topaz Smith, who is Black, said the organization embraced a “lawless approach to anti-discrimination laws” and oversaw a hostile atmosphere toward women and Black employees.
She added that it deprived her and other black employees of the opportunity to advance professionally.
The nonprofit’s conferences — particularly the one in Davos in January — have become destinations for the global elite to meet and network under the guise of saving the world. (The theme of this year’s Davos forum was “Rebuilding Trust,” while last year’s was “Collaboration in a Fragmented World.”)
An article in The Wall Street Journal last month, citing internal complaints and interviews with current and former employees, alleged that employees had accused the organization of sexual harassment and racism.
According to the article, this behavior also applied to Mr. Schwab, the organization's outgoing chairman.
The report was cited in the lawsuit by Ms. Smith, who said she had directly experienced discriminatory behavior during her two years at the group’s consulting arm. A supervisor told her to consider her boss “her master,” she said, and the organization did not pay for her to travel to the Davos conference to participate in panels she organized. But it did pay for white employees to do so, according to the lawsuit.
Ms. Smith accused the organization of effectively firing her this year after she returned to work from federally protected maternity leave, and replacing her with a white woman who was not pregnant.
In a statement, a representative of the World Economic Forum said: “While it is disappointing to see such false claims being made, now that the case is before the courts, the falsity of these claims will become apparent.”
