Google in hot water again, this time for discrimination

Google is no stranger to controversy. Already drowning in privacy issues, the tech giant certainly does not need any more bad publicity right now. Nonetheless, it looks like more issues are looming for the world’s greatest disseminator of information.

As reported by CNET, the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) – the federal agency responsible for protecting employees against workplace discrimination – is investigating Google for allegedly discriminating against a pregnant employee named Chelsey Glasson. (Related: Google employees wear multi-colored propeller hats to proclaim obedience to their creepy techno-cult.)

Claims of discrimination and retaliation

Ms. Glasson alleges that after working for Google for five years as a user experience researcher, she began to experience discrimination and retaliation from management staff at Google after she fell pregnant.

She claims that her supervisor made discriminatory remarks about pregnant women in her presence and that she was “punished” for complaining to HR about these comments by being given poor performance reviews and being denied a leadership position.

She was also warned before leaving on maternity leave that there was no guarantee that her management position would still be hers on her return.

To add insult to injury, Ms. Glasson claimed in an internal memo entitled, I’m Not Returning to Google After Maternity Leave, and Here is Why – which quickly went viral – that the company’s human resources department did not even bother to investigate any of her claims until she took the drastic step of hiring an attorney.

In addition, despite never having interviewed Ms. Glasson, Google nonetheless made the determination that there was no basis to her claims.

CNBC reported:

Glasson filed a complaint with the EEOC late last year with the allegations, which had more detail, including that one of the alleged supervisors was on the Google Cloud team.

The company responded to the EEOC complaint in January, saying it found no evidence of discrimination and that it didn’t make Glasson a manager due to insufficient headcount, according to materials viewed by CNBC. (Related: Google employees are suddenly realizing their employer is pure EVIL; now they’re freaking out over Pentagon AI “terminator” project.)

Glasson just one of many employees to allege discrimination

Ms. Glasson is by no means the only ex-employee to accuse Google of some form of discrimination.

CNBC reported:

The latest investigation comes as Alphabet-owned Google faces multiple investigations from federal agencies as complaints by former Google employees mount. CNBC first reported that The U.S. National Labor Relations Board began an investigation into Google after the firing of four employees. That came just months after the company reached a labor settlement with the agency. Last summer, Google settled a class action age discrimination lawsuit, agreeing to pay $11 million.

Having initially ignored Ms. Glasson’s claims entirely, after her memo gained traction and was viewed by over 10,000 people the company issued a statement in January denying that she was ever the target of discrimination.

“Reporting misconduct takes courage and we want to provide care and support to people who raise concerns,” a Google spokeswoman said. “All instances of inappropriate conduct reported to us are investigated rigorously, and over the past year we have simplified how employees can raise concerns and provided more transparency into the investigations process at Google. We work to be extremely transparent about how we handle complaints and the action we take.”

The EEOC has declined to offer any comment, insisting that under federal law any charges and complaints handled by the agency are strictly confidential, and that employees are prohibited from commenting on them in any way.

Google has refused to either confirm or deny that it is being investigated by the EEOC, simply stating that it has implemented improved systems for reporting “inappropriate conduct.”

Discover what else Google is getting up to at TechGiants.news.

Sources for this article include:

CNET.com 1

CNET.com 2

CNBC.com 3