Workplace Discrimination Case

The engineer who was fired by Google after he criticized its diversity policies last August claims in a lawsuit that he and others at the internet giant faced harassment and workplace discrimination due to their conservative political views. This latest lawsuit against Google comes on the heels of a lawsuit brought against the company in December citing violations of the California Equal Pay Act. That suit alleges that Google discriminates against its women employees by systematically paying them lower compensation than their male peers for performing substantially similar work under similar working conditions. 

Damore v. Google, LLC. (Cal. Sup. Ct., Santa Clara Cty.)

On January 8, former Google engineer James Damore, who famously circulated a memo about Google's so-called "ideological echo chamber," and a fellow former Google employee filed a discrimination class action complaint against Google on behalf of all employees of Google discriminated against "due to their perceived conservative political views," "their male gender," and/or "their Caucasian race." 

The other ex-Googler named as a plaintiff is David Gudeman, who says he was an engineer for three years until he was wrongfully terminated in December 2016. The two men claim they were “ostracized, belittled and punished for their heterodox political views, and for the added sin of their birth circumstances of being Caucasians and/or males.”

The complaint alleges the following:

• that employees who deviated from the "majority view" at Google regarding issues such as "'diversity' hiring policies, 'bias sensitivity,' or 'social justice,'" were singled out, mistreated, and systematically punished and terminated from Google.
• that the company's "open hostility" to conservative thought leads to discrimination in hiring, promotion, and termination decisions on the basis of race and gender because of the "extreme" lengths Google allegedly goes to in taking race and/or gender into consideration as determinative hiring factors, to the detriment of white males.
• that several of Google's diversity initiatives, including, among other things, a "Diversity and Inclusion Summit" and a "diversity training class," as evidence of bias against conservative white men.
• "Google's current method of increasing diversity resulted in what is known as reverse discrimination, because Caucasian and Asian males were not being selected for jobs and promotions due solely to their status as non-females or non-favored minorities."

Damore's Attorney

Damore's attorney is Harmeet Dhillon, a civil rights lawyer who has taken on cases that push back against the Bay Area's progressive tendencies. As part of a press conference, Dhillon, a California representative for the Republican National Committee, elaborated more on the very lengthy complaint and argued that her current clients are far from alone. Dhillon suggested that she had spoken with “dozens” of employees at Google to formulate the lawsuit and that she expects there will be "future lawsuits" to explore, as well.

California Employment Law

Protected classes called out in both state and federal statutes, such as sex, religion, race, etc. are broadly defined. As such, every person can face discrimination, and it is just as unlawful if targeted against white men as it would be against any other group. As long as an employee is negatively impacted because of his or her membership in a protected class, that counts as discrimination and could form the basis for a lawsuit. Further, California law also bans private employers from discriminating against workers due to their political views, affiliations, or activities.

If you are living in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento, or San Diego and feel you have been a victim of workplace discrimination, contact Kingsley and Kingsley to speak with one of our experienced Los Angeles employment lawyers. We offer free initial consultations.