Oakland, California: Google has agreed to a $50 million settlement in response to a class action lawsuit that alleged widespread racial discrimination against Black employees within the company. The settlement, which still requires judicial approval, was filed Thursday evening in federal court in Oakland, California.
The lawsuit, representing over 4,000 Black Google employees in California and New York, accuses the tech giant of fostering a racially biased corporate environment. Plaintiffs claim the company systematically steered Black workers into lower-level roles, paid them less than their peers, downgraded their performance evaluations, and denied them fair opportunities for promotion.
April Curley, the lead plaintiff and a former Google employee, said she was hired specifically to enhance outreach to historically Black colleges and universities. However, she alleges the company blocked her advancement, subjected her to harmful racial stereotypes, and ultimately terminated her employment after six years as she prepared a report on Google’s internal racial dynamics.
“Managers also allegedly denigrated Black employees by declaring they were not ‘Googley’ enough or lacked ‘Googleyness,’” the lawsuit states, characterizing those terms as racially coded language.
In 2021, the complaint notes, Black employees accounted for only 4.4% of Google’s workforce and just 3% of its leadership, despite the company’s pledges to improve diversity and inclusion.
Google, a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc., has denied any wrongdoing in reaching the settlement.
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“We strongly disagree with the allegations that we treated anyone improperly and we remain committed to paying, hiring and leveling all employees consistently,” said Courtenay Mencini, a spokesperson for Google, in a statement issued Friday via email.
The legal action began in March 2022, following an investigation by the California Civil Rights Department—formerly known as the Department of Fair Employment and Housing—into the company’s treatment of Black women.
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Attorneys representing the plaintiffs may request up to $12.5 million in legal fees from the settlement fund. Earlier this week, they also dropped related claims on behalf of job applicants, citing the evidence they obtained and Google’s “reasoned arguments.”
The case is titled Curley et al. v. Google LLC, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, Case No. 22-01735.
