269 People Joined An Age Discrimination Class Action Suit Against Google (bizjournals.com)

Slashdot reader #9,119 BrookHarty writes: "269 people have joined a class-action lawsuit against Google claiming they were discriminated against in the workplace based on their age..." reports BizJournals. "The lawsuit originated in 2015 with plaintiff Robert Heath and was certified as a class-action in 2016." Google has stated it has implemented policies to stop age discrimination but still has an average employee age of 29.

In 2004 Larry Page fired Brian Reid nine days before IPO costing Reid 45 million in unvested stock options. Reid was fired for lack of "cultural fit". Reid has settled for an undisclosed amount.

Comments

Re:"ideas ... too old to matter"

[Noishkel]

Well, now I suddenly am a little glade I had to quit college for network engineering to get an immediate job in trucking. Especially since most of the people I knew in tech in the early 00s have now left the tech industry, largely because of how bad working in California is for anyone right of Mao or quiet enough to not be noticed.

Over 40 Taboo in Silicon Valley and Elsewhere

[Anonymous Coward]

I left Silicon Valley when I was 38, seeing the writing on the wall - having started to get worse and worse performance reviews (along with my late 30's peers). I could see the setup coming.

So, I bailed, and moved back east, where I thought I might escape the discrimination. Hah. Wishful thinking.

I managed to get a new job with a somewhat large company that makes utility measurement equipment. About a year after I was hired, the CEO came to our office for a global townhall, during which he actually said that "we have to become a younger company," and to that end, there would be quotas on hiring fresh graduates and limits on hiring people over 40. He actually said there would be limits on over-40 hiring.

Apparently, this is not against the law if it is implemented by positional limits - i.e. eliminating "senior positions" and opening more "junior positions." They just say "well we don't need any more senior engineers but we need a boatload of junior engineers," and that's perfectly okay - or so an employment lawyer told me.

This really just solidified it with me that all laws do the opposite of what their title says. A law that says it is "anti-discrimination" is really just a manual for how to discriminate.