http://www.laborradio.org/node/13579Submitted by Doug Cunningham on May 25, 2010 - 6:13pm
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Is ageism at the root of a battle between Google and a former employee? Jesse Russell takes a look:
The California Supreme Court will weigh that question today as it hears the case of 54-year-old Brian Reid who says he was fired for his age six years ago. Reid started working at Google in 2002 when the company only had 30 employees who were over the age of 40. By the time Ried was let go in 2004 the average age for males at the Googleplex in California was 29.7. Since then the company has refused the request of multiple media outlets for the average age of employees. However, Google has consistently pointed out that Reid is the only ageism suit that has been brought against the company during its 12 years as a company. Additionally, Ried has based his suit on comments he said were made by colleagues including “slow” and “sluggish.” Google has called those comments simply “stray remarks” which have little merit.