Dive Brief:
- Google is facing an age discrimination lawsuit that may soon get larger as more individuals were recently allowed to join the suit, according to a Business Insider report.
- Two software engineers over the age of 40 applied and interviewed with Google, but were not offered jobs. The pair filed a lawsuit against the company and on Friday, a judge allowed the suit to become a "collective action."
- People who "interviewed in person with Google for a software engineer, site reliability engineer or systems engineer position when they were 40 years old or older, and received notice on or after August 28, 2014, that they were refused employment, will have an opportunity to join in the collective action against Google," according to the filings.
Dive Insight:
One of the plaintiffs in the case reportedly presented evidence showing the median age of Google's workforce is 29.
Google has continued to deny the allegations, and recently told Business Insider, "we believe the allegations here are without merit and we will continue to defend our position vigorously. We have strong policies against discrimination on any unlawful basis, including age."
This is not the first time Google has been sued for ageism. The company was also sued for age discrimination in 2004 and the case was settled out of court.
Other tech companies are currently facing similar lawsuits. In August, four former employees filed a lawsuit accusing both Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) and Hewlett Packard Inc. (HPI) of age discrimination. The former employees claim HP singled out older workers when it laid off thousands of people both before and after its restructuring and split into two separate companies.
If substantiated, the age discrimination suits could reshape hiring practices at the tech giants and have ripple effects across the industry.
