Dive Brief:
- Google agreed to a $50 million settlement in a class-action lawsuit brought by Black current and former employees who alleged racial discrimination in the company’s policies and practices, according to a Thursday court filing.
- The lead plaintiff in Curley v. Google, LLC, an African American female, designed outreach programs to allow the technology giant to recruit students at historically Black colleges and universities. She alleged in a 2022 complaint that Google discriminated and retaliated against her and similarly situated employees on the basis of race, sex and sexual orientation in violation of federal and New York city and state laws.
- In addition to providing monetary relief, Google said it would adopt several provisions. For example, over a three–year period following settlement, the company would identify race-based pay disparities prior to finalizing pay changes for subsequent years. It also would not require mandatory arbitration agreements for employment-related disputes through and including August 2026 and would not enforce existing, similar agreements during that time.
Dive Insight:
One of the world’s most prominent companies has issued yet another multimillion-dollar agreement to settle discrimination allegations. Similar news came in 2021, when Google agreed to pay $3.8 million to settle pay discrimination claims at California and Washington state locations following a U.S. Department of Labor investigation into pay disparities affecting women and Asian employees.
Prior to that, Google agreed to pay $11 million in 2019 to settle a class-action age discrimination lawsuit alleging that the company discriminated against job applicants ages 40 and above.
In Thursday’s settlement, three named plaintiffs claimed that they were assigned lower-level roles, paid lower wages, given unfair performance ratings, subjected to a hostile work environment and denied advancement and leadership roles because of their race. Google has faced criticism of its pay practices in the past, with one internal 2022 survey reportedly finding a sharp decline in employee pay satisfaction compared to 2021.
In her complaint, the lead plaintiff alleged that Google “‘under-leveled’” her by assigning her a seniority level lower than that suggested by her education attainment and professional experience. The company did not promote her or give her a merit pay increase, she claimed, despite “stellar qualifications and performance.”
The plaintiff further alleged that “Google was biased against and reluctant to hire Black talent, subjecting Black students to more stringent hiring practices than non-Black candidates” as well as hazing them and asking them “level-inappropriate questions” as a means of intentionally tanking their interview scores.
“As Plaintiff’s success in recruiting talented, well-qualified Black candidates grew, she discovered that Google was not genuinely interested in actual diversity and equal employment opportunities but wanted only to burnish its public image for marketing purposes,” the plaintiff alleged. “Google wanted Plaintiff, as an African American woman, to quietly put on a good face for the company and toe the company line. But Plaintiff was unwilling to be used as a mere marketing ploy.”
“We’ve reached an agreement that involves no admission of wrongdoing,” a Google spokesperson told HR Dive in an email. “We strongly disagree with the allegations that we treated anyone improperly and we remain committed to paying, hiring, and leveling all employees consistently.”