James Damore, the Google engineer who was fired after his internal memo criticizing the company’s diversity efforts went viral, has filed a proposed class action lawsuit against the company.

Damore’s original memo, which was leaked this fall, criticized Google’s “left leaning” culture and argued that women in engineering were paid less than men because of their biological differences, not because of hiring practices, among other topics. It sparked a discussion about rampant sexism in Silicon Valley and Google said the memo was contrary to the company’s “basic values” and Code of Conduct.

The lawsuit, which was filed in the Santa Clara Superior Court on Monday, alleges that Google “discriminated against employees for their perceived conservative political views,” as well as due to their “male gender,” and “Caucasian race,” and “systematically punished” them.

The lawsuit seeks to represent all employees of Google who’ve been discriminated against and seeks monetary, non-monetary, and punitive damages.

“Google employees who expressed views deviating from the majority view at Google on political subjects raised in the workplace and relevant to Google’s employment policies and its business, such as ‘diversity’ hiring policies, ‘bias sensitivity,’ or ‘social justice’ were/are singled out, mistreated, and systematically punished and terminated from Google, in violation of their legal rights,” the lawsuit begins.

Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Source: Tech CNBC
The Google engineer fired over his controversial 'diversity memo' files discrimination suit