Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Silicon Valley Big Data Startup Palantir Responds To Labor Department's Discrimination Lawsuit (fortune.com)

Posted by msmash on from the addressing-concerns dept.

Silicon Valley's big data startup Palantir, founded by tech billionaire Peter Thiel, has filed a response to the Department of Labor after the agency sued the company for discriminating against Asian job applicants. From a Fortune report: Palantir says that no discrimination took place and that the Labor Department's statistical analysis -- the basis for the recent suit -- is faulty. The suit, according to Palantir's 15-page response, wrongly suggests that the company "should have hired a workforce that matched the racial composition of the group of individuals whose resumes Palantir received, without regard to candidate qualifications." Palantir's response also points out that the suit addressed only three out of 44 job titles for which Palantir hired employees within the 18-month analysis period conducted by the Labor Department. What's more, says the response, 36% of those eventually hired across all the job openings within that timeframe were Asian -- a rate that exceeds the percentage of qualified Asian employees in the external labor market, according to stats from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

4 of 80 comments (clear)

  1. guilty! by ooloorie · · Score: 5, Insightful

    36% of those eventually hired across all the job openings within that timeframe were Asian -- a rate that exceeds the percentage of qualified Asian employees in the external labor market,

    See, they are guilty after all!

    (This is pretty obviously a politically motivated action by the administration, to punish Thiel for supporting libertarian and conservative causes. This will likely be followed by dropping government contracts, whether or not the company is found guilty of any wrongdoing.)

    1. Re:guilty! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Or maybe they, *gasp*, hire based on qualifications and merit rather than some racist guideline the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has laid out.

      Equal opportunity does not mean equal outcome.

  2. Malicious litigation. by jcr · · Score: 4, Insightful

    These bureaucrats know that they're full of shit. This lawsuit is motivated entirely by their desire to punish Thiel for backing Trump. I hope he goes after them personally in court.

    -jcr

    --
    The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
  3. Re:"Startup" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Depends how long you can keep bilking investors into giving you long term loans