Engineer fired for gender memo files discrimination suit
Lawsuit alleges discrimination against men and white people
James Damore, a former Google engineer who was fired after he wrote a controversial memo claiming that biological differences between men and women might explain why there’s a gender gap in tech, is alleging in a lawsuit that the tech firm discriminates against men, conservatives and white people.
The lawsuit, which was filed on Monday and seeks class-action status, claims that Google uses “illegal hiring quotas” to employ a certain percentage of women and minorities and shames managers who don’t meet those goals.
Google singles out and punishes employees like Damore who express views that don’t align with how the majority of employees at the tech firm feel about politics and diversity efforts, the lawsuit alleges.
“There’s kind of a ‘Lord of the Flies’ mentality there where a person can be singled out and then group shamed, bullied and fired,” said Harmeet Dhillon, a lawyer for the Dhillon Law Group, in a press conference on Monday.
Another white conservative former Google engineer, David Gudeman, is also named as a plaintiff in the lawsuit. Gudeman worked for the tech firm from 2013 to 2016, but was also fired from Google after an employee alleged that he accused a Muslim co-worker of terrorism, the lawsuit alleges.
The complaint, which is 161 pages and was filed with the California Superior Court of Santa Clara County, also claims that Google publicly endorses “blacklisting conservatives,” preventing them from getting a job at the tech firm, and fails to protect President Donald Trump’s supporters from workplace harassment.
The lawsuit alleges that Google violated California labor laws and the state’s Fair Employment and Housing Act by discriminating against certain employees like Damore.
“We look forward to defending against Mr. Damore’s lawsuit in court,” Google said in a statement on Monday.
Meanwhile, Google is also facing another lawsuit alleging that it pays women less than men.
Damore, who is still unemployed, was fired after he wrote a memo criticizing Google’s diversity initiatives as “discriminatory.” He claims the tech firm has a left-leaning bias. His post sparked a backlash in Silicon Valley, where tech firms are struggling to employ more women and minorities.
Google’s workforce, like other Silicon Valley companies, is still dominated by white and Asian men. In 2017, the tech firm’s global workforce was 69 percent male and 31
percent female. In the United States, about 56 percent of Google’s employees were white and 35 percent were Asian.
Damore wrote in his memo that women, on average, are more agreeable, display higher anxiety and show a higher interest in people rather than things, which he suggested might explain why there’s a gender gap in tech.
In the press conference Monday, Damore said that he was trying to make Google a more inclusive place. But other employees started criticizing his viewpoints, and eventually the internal memo was leaked to the public, impacting his ability to find another job.
“I’ve been harassed online. It’s really been unreal,” Damore said.
The 28-year-old said he would “welcome the chance to go back to Google,” though that appears unlikely.
In August, Google CEO Sundar Pichai wrote in a memo to employees that the tech firm fired Damore because he violated the company’s code of conduct, which states that Googlers should “do their utmost to create a workplace culture that is free of harassment, intimidation, bias and unlawful discrimination.”