A former Google employee sued the company on Friday, claiming it systematically discriminated against black workers, putting them in low-level, low-paying jobs and denying them opportunities for career advancement.
The lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California in San Jose, seeks to become a class action suit. The plaintiff is April Curley, who worked at Google from 2014 until she was fired in 2020.
While at the company, Curley helped bring black employees to Google, creating recruiting programs at traditionally black colleges and universities.
“Google is engaged in a national standard or practice of intentional racial discrimination and retaliation, and maintains employment policies and practices that have a disparate impact on black employees in the United States,” the complaint read.
A Google spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit.
The lawsuit reflects many complaints filed by black employees over the years about working at Google. Even as it has grown to become one of the largest private employers in the United States, the company has struggled to increase racial and gender diversity among its workforce, especially among its well-paid team of engineers.
According to its 2021 diversity report, 4.4% of Google’s US employees were “Black+”, which includes workers who identify as more than one race.
This is far below the national average of 9.1% for digital publishing and research companies, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The suit says that Google systematically hires black employees in a lower professional position than their experience. As pay is tied to job levels, this allowed the company to pay black employees less than their peers.
Qualified black candidates were often not considered sufficiently “googly” — an arbitrary designation that would be a kind of flag for racial profiling, according to the complaint.
She also claims the company has often confused black job seekers with intentionally tough questions so they’ll do poorly in interviews, and has accused Google of hiring black workers for lower-paying, lower-level jobs with less potential for advancement.
Curley also said she was subjected to a hostile work environment. During her six years at the company, she said, managers often confused her with two other black colleagues.
She said that she and these colleagues were not allowed to speak or perform during important meetings, and that she felt humiliated and sexualized when a manager asked which colleagues she wanted to sleep with.
The suit said that Curley’s salary had been reduced and that she was reprimanded for speaking out at staff meetings and challenging internal practices in 2019. A year later, the company put Curley on a performance improvement plan and terminated her contract. in September 2020.
Translated by Luiz Roberto M. Gonçalves
I have over 8 years of experience in the news industry. I have worked for various news websites and have also written for a few news agencies. I mostly cover healthcare news, but I am also interested in other topics such as politics, business, and entertainment. In my free time, I enjoy writing fiction and spending time with my family and friends.
