Facebook sued for gender and race discrimination

On March 16, a former Facebook employee filed 11 complaints against the social network in a California court. The woman’s claims stemmed from her time working for Facebook between June 2010 and October 2013. She alleges that race and gender discrimination were pervasive in Facebook’s work environment, and her claim charges Facebook for various offenses including national origin discrimination and sexual harassment.

According to the plaintiff, coworkers at Facebook ignored her opinions on a regular basis. She says that she was also subjected to inappropriate comments about the fact that she was working rather than staying at home with her children. She claims that management at Facebook reprimanded her for taking time off to do volunteer work at the school her children attended. The woman says that Eventually a less-qualified male employee was hired to replace her, and she was fired.

Facebook, one named employee at Facebook and 50 other unnamed employees at Facebook were listed as defendants in the lawsuit. The plaintiff is seeking monetary compensation for her lost wages and benefits as well as reimbursement for attorney fees. She is also seeking financial compensation for emotional distress, anguish and mental pain related to her experiences.

According to statistics provided by Twitter, Facebook, Google and other tech companies, 70 percent of employees in the tech industry are white males. Many people believe that this lack of diversity may contribute to a culture of workplace gender and race discrimination. Any person who believes that they have been subjected to discrimination in the workplace might want to speak with a lawyer about filing a workplace discrimination claim.

Source: CNET Magazine, “Facebook facing litany of gender, racial complaints,” Nick Statt, March 18, 2015