Revised lawsuit against Google over gender pay disparity
What's the story
Four former women employees of Google have filed a revised lawsuit against the tech giant on Wednesday, accusing it of gender pay disparity. Three of them were also behind another lawsuit filed previously in September 2017. It alleged that Google paid its men and women workers differently for doing the same job. Read on to know more.
Backstory
September 2017 lawsuit dismissed for being too vague
The September 2017 lawsuit, filed by Kelly Ellis (software engineer), Holly Pease (management), and Kelli Wisuri (sales), accused Google of facilitating the gender pay gap. However, a California judge dismissed the suit in December, rejecting the class action claim as too vague. The plaintiffs were given 30 days to lodge a new complaint representing only those women who suffered pay discrimination.
Revised lawsuit
New lawsuit has a fourth plaintiff, a school teacher
The newly-filed suit specifically defines the departments worst affected by Google's unfair pay practices. It seeks class action status on behalf of women employed with tech giant in engineering, management, sales and teaching roles. The revised lawsuit also has a fourth plaintiff, another former female employee, Heidi Lamar, who taught the kids of Google employees at its Palo Alto children center for four years.
Accusation
What does Heidi Lamar allege?
According to Lamar, who worked with Google from July 2013 to August 2017, despite being more qualified and doing the same work, female preschool teachers got lower salaries than men. Lamar claims that Google had 150 teachers where she worked. Of them, only three were men, two of whom were paid more than everyone else but one female employee.
Other side
Google dismisses all claims
However, Google has rubbished all claims of any malpractices. "We disagree with the central allegations of this amended lawsuit. We work really hard to create a great workplace for everyone, and to give everyone the chance to thrive here," a Google spokeswoman told CNNMoney. She added that job levels/promotions were determined after multiple levels of rigorous review, to make sure that they were bias-free.
Other incidents
Google also accused of sexual misconduct, racial profiling
This gender pay gap lawsuit is not a standalone incident. Last year, several women called out the sexual harassment and racial discrimination that they faced at Google. In December, Duke University professor Katherine Heller accused Steven Scott, a senior Google AI researcher, of sexual misconduct. In August, Qichen Zhang, a Google techie, shared how she would be constantly subjected to racial profiling at work.