Former Google software engineer Loretta Lee has filed a lawsuit against the search giant, claiming sexual harassment, and gender discrimination.
According to a report in the Silicon Valley website, Lee, who was sacked by Google in 2016 for alleged poor performance, claims she was slapped, groped and even experienced a worker hiding under her desk — the man told her that she would never know what he had been doing there — one night.
Lee's lawsuit, filed in the Santa Clara Country Superior Court, says, “Google’s bro-culture contributed to (Lee’s) suffering frequent sexual harassment and gender discrimination, for which Google failed to take corrective action".
Google has already been sued by engineer James Damore, who was fired after he wrote a screed, that became public, alleging that the gender gap in tech jobs was due to biological factors.
{loadposition sam08}Last Wednesday, another former Google engineer Tim Chevalier sued the company for firing him over posting what he described as politically liberal content on internal message boards.
And in September 2017, three former women employees — Kelly Ellis, Holly Pease and Kelli Wisuri — filed a class-action lawsuit, alleging they were paid less than their male counterparts who had similar roles.
Google told the Silicon Valley website that it had "strong policies against harassment in the workplace”.
A company spokesperson was quoted as saying: "We take action when we find violations, including termination of employment.”
Lee alleges that the harassment she came up against included abuse and egregious incidents. She claims she had to put up with lewd comments, ogling, having her drinks being spiked with whisky, and having Nerf balls and darts shot at her.
She claims she "was slapped in the face by an intoxicated male co-worker for no apparent reason", at a holiday party.
In January 2016, she found a man under her desk; when she came close, he is alleged to have left, shouting, "You’ll never know what I was doing!"
The suit says: “She was frightened by his comment and believed he may have installed some type of camera or similar device under her desk."
Lee is asking for more than US$25,000 in unspecified damages for harassment, gender discrimination, failure to prevent sexual harassment, disability discrimination, wrongful termination and retaliation.