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In late July, it was reported that Google settled a class-action, age discrimination lawsuit. In the terms of the settlement, about 200 job seekers over the age of 40, who applied for positions at Google, would receive a settlement of $11 million. The company was consequently forced to train employees and management about age bias, form a committee focused on age diversity and ensure that age-related complaints are fully investigated to comply with the settlement terms.
Now, almost two months later, a legal complaint was filed by plaintiff Rodney Broome in Santa Clara County Superior Court, accusing Google of age discrimination and harassment. The claimant asserted that Google and one of its managers allegedly engaged in age discrimination. The supervisor indicated in the complaint, Ignaciao Mendez, was accused of waging a campaign of harassment against the 72-year-old Broome and intentionally inflicted emotional distress on him because of his age.
Broome started work at Google in July 2007 in the company’s Lego Labs as a hardware test engineer for platform engineering. Everything seemed fine until 2017 when Broome reported into a new supervisor, Ignacio Mendez. Shortly thereafter, allegations were raised that Mendez called Broome both "old and slow" and "grandpa." He chastised him for being "in retirement mode" and told him he was "a worthless piece of shit." According to the suit, Mendez allegedly mentioned to Broome that he might encounter car trouble. Coincidentally, Broome’s car and house were broken into. It was alleged that Mendez bragged about criminal connections, according to court filings.
Broome brought this matter to the attention of human resources to no avail. The complaint reflects that the harassment only intensified. According to Law.com, after Broome complained to his manager’s supervisor, Mendez retaliated with poor performance reviews, cut his bonuses and offered his job to two younger employees. After receiving a written warning, Mendez accused Broome of "ratting him out."
Subsequent to physical confrontations and continued alleged abuse, Broome resigned in February 2019. Broom’s lawyer, John Winer of Winer, Burritt, & Tillis, claims that the case is a blatant instance of age discrimination and part of a pattern of discrimination and harassment due to the company’s youthful culture.
Winer said, “I think that Google and other companies are far more focused on earnings than they are on human resource issues.” He added, “Instead of attempting to assure that there is no harassment and discrimination in the workforce, in fact it’s rampant.”
In a statement to Law.com, a Google spokesperson said, “These claims are unsubstantiated and we intend to defend them vigorously.”
Sadly, Google is only one of many tech companies, such as IBM, Oracle, Facebook and Verizon, that have been accused of age discrimination.
