Some white men push back against programs for hiring women and
people of color
By Lauren Weber
This article is being republished as part of our daily
reproduction of WSJ.com articles that also appeared in the U.S.
print edition of The Wall Street Journal (March 15, 2018).
Two high-profile legal cases in which white men have accused
employers of discrimination or retaliation have put a spotlight on
U.S. companies' efforts to make career advancement more accessible
to women and people of color.
A recruiter is accusing YouTube of retaliating against him after
he complained that the video site discriminated against white and
Asian male applicants in favor of hiring other people of color and
women. The case comes on the heels of a lawsuit against Google, in
which James Damore has accused the company of firing him for
espousing conservative political views that oppose the company's
diversity-related hiring practices.
Alphabet Inc., parent company of Google and YouTube, said it
would defend itself in both cases in an area that has been heavily
litigated. Discrimination is generally difficult to prove, and
so-called reverse-discrimination lawsuits must pass an even higher
bar, employment lawyers say.
"You can have a goal, even a numerical goal over a time period,
to increase the number of women or people of color," said Dennis
Parker, director of the racial justice program at the American
Civil Liberties Union. "That's different than saying 'We're not
going to hire any more white men.' "
The cases could have broader implications for Silicon Valley
companies and their recruiting methods as the tech industry faces
continued scrutiny for a lack of diversity. While discrimination
against any sex or race is forbidden by federal statute, courts
have long allowed companies to put in place programs meant to
correct imbalances, such as targeted outreach and training courses
designed for people from under-represented groups.
One of the last major cases alleging discrimination against
white men was decided in 2009 when the Supreme Court sided with
white firefighters who said the New Haven, Conn., fire department
discriminated against them by invalidating the results of a test
used to determine promotions. Fearing the test would be called
discriminatory, the fire department threw out the results and used
other measures to make promotions when black firefighters scored
poorly.
Courts still allow companies to deploy programs designed to open
up opportunities to a broader segment of the workforce. In such
cases, judges look closely at precise details.
Arne Wilberg, the plaintiff in the suit against YouTube, is a
white recruiter who worked at Google for nine years, including four
years at YouTube. He alleges that the video site told recruiters to
cancel interviews with applicants who weren't female, black or
Hispanic after setting quotas for hiring minorities.
"We have a clear policy to hire candidates based on their merit,
not their identity," a Google spokeswoman said in response to the
suit. "At the same time, we unapologetically try to find a diverse
pool of qualified candidates for open roles."
Google fired Mr. Damore in August after he circulated a memo
that criticized Google's diversity efforts and suggested women were
less qualified than men for some technology jobs. Mr. Damore and a
co-worker sued, accusing Google of being a hostile workplace for
employees with conservative views and alleging it unfairly favors
women and certain minorities when hiring and promoting.
Mr. Damore also filed a charge with the National Labor Relations
Board but withdrew it in February after an NLRB lawyer advised that
parts of his memo were "so harmful, discriminatory, and disruptive"
that it wasn't protected workplace speech.
Mr. Damore's attorney, Harmeet Dhillon, said that since the
lawsuit was filed, she has been contacted by "countless current and
former Google employees as well as employees of other tech
companies making similar allegations."
Many U.S. employers are under pressure from employees, advocacy
groups and, in some cases, investors to diversify their payrolls
and, by extension, tackle issues like the gender wage gap, sexual
harassment and economic inequality. For example, activist
shareholder Arjuna Capital has led campaigns to compel firms
including Amazon.com Inc. and Apple Inc. to identify and fix pay
disparities between male and female workers.
The tech sector has come under special scrutiny ever since big
tech firms began disclosing data about the makeup of their
workforces, said Jon Bischke, chief executive of Entelo, a
recruiting software firm that helps companies hire technical
talent.
"Their numbers effectively have to go up every year," he said.
"If their numbers went backward, that would be a public-relations
nightmare."
Men have filed between 22% and 23% of all Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission charges alleging sex-based discrimination in
the past three years.
Discrimination claims from white men aren't confined to the
office. Last fall, a man sued a San Diego restaurant that hosted a
women's networking event, saying he was discriminated against
because he wasn't allowed to attend and, although he was permitted
to sit at the bar, wasn't given the discounted drink specials
offered to attendees. His suit naming the restaurant and Ladies Get
Paid, the organization that hosted the event, was settled.
The restaurant's attorney, Danielle Moore, a partner in the San
Diego office of Fisher & Phillips LLC, said until recently she
had never represented a business against a reverse discrimination
claim, but two such cases have come her way in the past year.
Write to Lauren Weber at lauren.weber@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 15, 2018 02:47 ET (06:47 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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