Google under fire for alleged workplace sexual discrimination

Three female former employees of Google have filed a law suit against the technology giant alleging it pays women less than men for comparable work and denies promotion and career opportunities to qualified women.

The complaint, filed on Thursday in a San Francisco Court , on behalf of all women employed by Google in California over the last four years, provided the most detailed formal accounts to date of gender discrimination and pay disparities at the company after months of criticisms and a growing chorus of women.

The suit states Google is aware of the situation, but has done nothing to fix it. It also comes as companies in Silicon Valley face increasing scrutiny over gender relations.

Google is also under investigation by the US Department of Labor (DOL) over its pay practices.

“We’ve been talking about these issues for a long time, and it hasn’t really changed,” Kelly Ellis, a former Google employee and a lead plaintiff on the case, told the Guardian in her first interview about the suit. “There’s been a lot of PR and lip service, but … this is going to be one of the only ways to get these companies to change how they hire and compensate women.”

“It is time to stop ignoring these issues in tech,” added Kelly.

She also posted on Twitter that she hopes the suit will force Google and other companies to change their practices.

The lawsuit says Google discriminates against female staff with lower pay, more limited promotion, and fewer advancement opportunities compared to men with comparable qualifications.

Ms Ellis, for example, was hired in 2010 at a level typically assigned to college graduates, although she had four years of experience, according to the lawsuit. A male colleague with similar levels of experience started on a higher rung.

She was also assigned to a less prestigious engineering role, the suit says

Ms Ellis resigned from Google four years later “because of the sexist culture”, the lawsuit said.

The complaint is seeking class-action status that would cover women working at the company in California for the last four years. They are looking for unpaid wages, among other remedies.

Google said it would review the lawsuit but disagreed with the “central allegations”.

“Job levels and promotions are determined through rigorous hiring and promotion committees, and must pass multiple levels of review, including checks to make sure there is no gender bias in these decisions,” spokeswoman Gina Scigliano said in a statement.

Like other companies in Silicon Valley, the company has faced questions about how it treats women before.

70% of Google’s workforce are men, according to the company. Men represent about 80% of staff in “tech” roles and 75% of leadership positions.

During an audit in 2015, the DOL found systematic pay disparities at the firm, according to the lawsuit. The government in January sued Google to get access to more information to see if the patterns held true across a more extensive probe.

A spreadsheet with data from 1,200 employees also found disparities, the New York Times recently reported .

Google also made headlines earlier this summer, when a memo written by a senior Google employee that criticised diversity programmes and hiring practices became public.

Google later fired him.