The critics of Google\u2019s effort to promote workforce diversity now include one of its own former recruiters, who claims in a lawsuit he was fired because he didn\u2019t toe the line on rejecting white and Asian male job candidates.<\/p>\n
The Alphabet Inc unit had \u201cirrefutable policies, memorialized in writing and consistently implemented in practice, of systematically discriminating in favor job applicants who are Hispanic, African American, or female, and against Caucasian and Asian men,\u201d according to the complaint filed in state court in Redwood City, California.<\/p>\n
Arne Wilberg, who worked at Google and its YouTube unit for about nine years both as a contractor and an employee, claims he was terminated in retaliation for complaining to human resources about the company\u2019s hiring practices.<\/p>\n
Wilberg also alleged that late last year, management deleted emails and other digital records of diversity requirements.<\/p>\n
A Google spokeswoman said the company will vigorously defend itself against the lawsuit.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a clear policy to hire candidates based on their merit, not their identity,\u201d Gina Scigliano said in an email.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the same time, we unapologetically try to find a diverse pool of qualified candidates for open roles, as this helps us hire the best people, improve our culture, and build better products.\u201d<\/p>\n
Google has faced criticism over its diversity practices from both sides: those who say it\u2019s not doing enough to include women and underrepresented racial minorities, and those who assert that its efforts go too far.<\/p>\n
Google and many other technology giants started publicly sharing data on racial and gender diversity in 2014 and have faced pressure to increase the percentage of their workforce that isn\u2019t white or Asian men.<\/p>\n
Wilberg said that in 2016 and 2017, he and his fellow recruiters were told on several occasions to approve or dismiss job candidates based solely on whether they were women, black or Latino.<\/p>\n
In March 2017, a YouTube staffing manager emailed recruiters and told them, “Please continue with L3 [level three] candidates in process and only accept new L3 candidates that are from historically underrepresented groups.”<\/p>\n
In another email, the same manager wrote, “We should only consider L3s from our underrepresented groups.”<\/p>\n