Tim Chevalier, a former employee of Google who worked as a software developer and site-reliability engineer has accused the firm of various charges like discrimination, harassment and wrongful termination as he was terminated in November 2017. Online magazine Gizmodo reported early this week that Tim was fired for writing multiple internal posts about racism and sexism in the organization. He had expressed his views about an anti-diversity memo that was written by another Google employee James Damore, whose services were terminated early last year for speaking up on the tech giant’s discriminatory diversity policy.
Tim, who belongs to the LGBT community and is disabled too, had alleged that though Google is unable to protect its female and LGBT employees from harassment on the company’s internal forums, it is quick to punish employees that complain about these issues like sexual discrimination, racism and homophobia involving their co-workers. Speaking to The Verge, Tim stated that it is indeed ironical that Google chose to fire him by stating that he is biased against the people harassing him. He had asserted in the internal memo that gender inequalities in the technological industry exist due to biological reasons.
While the US National Labor Relations Board has dismissed James Damore’s petition stating that the firm did not violate any laws by firing him as he had made “unprotected discriminating statements” in the memo that was posted at the tech giant’s internal forums. The firm clarified that it will continue to have a strong policy against social stereotypes that are harmful and stereotypical. All employees are expected to follow a specific code of ethics and conduct that forbids them from promoting biased stereotypes on race, gender and sexual affiliation. The debate over harassment of women trying to make their way up in the male dominated technology industry has been raging for several months.
