Google Age Discrimination Suit Will Proceed

An appeals court ruled that a former Google Inc. executive should be allowed to proceed with his lawsuit against the Internet search giant for age discrimination. Brian Reid has alleged that the internet giant NASDAQ: GOOG) fired him because of his age, and the California Sixth District Court of Appeal said Thursday that a Santa Clara County Superior Court that rejected his claims was wrong. In finding that Brian Reid–who was age 54 when he was terminated from Google–presented sufficient evidence of age bias to proceed to trial, the appeals court pointed to frequent age-related remarks made to Reid by younger workers, plus statistics showing that younger employees tended to get higher bonuses and performance ratings. In addition, when Reid was stripped of his director duties, those duties were reassigned to younger employees and Reid was moved into a brand-new position without the benefit of a job title, budget, and staff–and that new position was allegedly eliminated just four months later.