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The case could run its course after the Superior Court of Santa Clara County rejected, on Thursday 6 June (here: http://www.scscourt.org/online_services/tentatives/sp_tr_dept1/fri.pdf), Google’s call for the class action, brought over discrimination against white, conservative men, to be thrown out. The litigation has been pursued by a former Google engineer who was fired and a job applicant. The first alleges that Google employees who have expressed views different from those of the majority of their colleagues on political issues expressed in the workplace but in connection with Google’s HR policies – including diversity or social justice policies – have been the subject of systematic retaliation. The engineer was fired for having distributed a viral 10-page memo entitled “Google’s Ideological Echo Chamber”, in which he said “Google’s left bias has created a politically correct monoculture that maintains its hold by shaming dissenters into silence”, as well as that diversity initiatives may not entirely close the gender gap in the technology sector. He expressed the view that some biological differences between men and women could explain why there are fewer female leaders in Silicon Valley. The second alleges that Google uses illegal recruitment quotas to reach its desired proportions of employees who are female or from ethnic minority groups, which is to the detriment of men who are white or Asian. In its call for the case to be thrown out, Google said the conservative political class does not represent a well-defined community of interest, adding that neither the complainants nor the law have provided a concrete definition of “conservative,” unlike groups defined by race or gender. Google’s request was rejected by the judge, who nonetheless expressed doubt over whether the complainants would be able to concretely define a “conservative” later in the case.
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