Google has been found guilty of sexual discrimination by a jury, and they have awarded $1.1 million to Ulku Rowe, a female Google Cloud executive who filed the complaint. Rowe’s lawsuit alleged that Google paid less experienced male colleagues higher salaries and subsequently denied her promotions in retaliation for her internal and legal complaints.
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The jury’s verdict, reported by Bloomberg Law, includes awards for punitive damages and pain and suffering. Before the trial began, Rowe expressed that her time at Google was marred by what she believed were unfair compensation and gender-based treatment. She claimed that Google passed her over for a vice president promotion in favour of an unqualified man who hadn’t even applied for the position. Following her lawsuit, Google once again denied her a similar promotion.
In response to the verdict, Attorney Cara Green of Outten & Golden stated in an email to The Verge that the unanimous decision not only upholds Ms. Rowe’s allegations of mistreatment by Google but also sends a strong message that discrimination and retaliation will not be tolerated in the workplace.
Green credited the efforts of thousands of Google employees who staged a walkout in 2018 and demanded reforms. This action followed a New York Times investigation revealing that Google had granted $90 million to Android co-founder amidst sexual assault allegations as he left the company. Over 20,000 Google employees and contractors participated in the walkout protest.
