Google is being dragged to courts by a former employee by the name Tim Chevalier who is claiming his termination of service has been a discriminatory and illegal act. However, the case is far from being as simple as it might sound given that it can well be considered a hangover of the infamous James Damore memo issue and the huge furore it created then.
According to Chevalier, the real reason Google found fault with him is the manner he dealt with the posts and memes he faced within the company’s own social circuit. Chevalier claims those to be racist and sexist in nature.
Google brushed aside such allegations claiming it is perfectly in its right to terminate anyone that refuses to comply with the company’s work place policies. It said ‘harmful stereotypes’ are not tolerated, more so when they thrive on issues related to race and gender. Google also said they had warned Chevalier for being a bit too active on social interactions within the company.
Tim Chevalier happened to be a software developer and served the role of site reliability engineer while at Google. Chevalier also happened to be a transgender and suffers from some disabilities as well. He has been engaged at Google for less than two years.
As for the James Damore angle to the latest developments, Chevalier’s allegations might sound familiar with what Damore had accused Google of more than a year ago. That was in the form of a 10-page memo circulated internally and claimed women to be biologically less likely to emerge as good engineers than their men counterpart. Damore had also accused Google of favoring white men who propagated a conservative line of thought.
Google had also ruled out any such allegation then and had responded by firing Damore subsequently. The US National Labor Relations Board also recently ruled in favor of Google after Damore had complained at the board over the manner Google had fired him.
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Tim Chevalier meanwhile had filed his case against Google at the San Francisco County Superior Court.
