Google suffers blow as age-discrimination suit clears hurdle
An age-discrimination lawsuit against Google has cleared a hurdle — over Google’s objections — and received conditional certification as a class action.
“How does age factor into one’s Googleyness?” Judge Beth Freeman of U.S. District Court in San Jose wrote at the start of her order handed down Wednesday.
Conditional certification is the first of two stages in approving a lawsuit as a class action and allows court-authorized notices to be sent to potential plaintiffs who could join the lawsuit.
Plaintiff Cheryl Fillekes claims Google interviewed her in person for four different jobs from 2007 to 2014, “including some occasions when Google affirmatively reached out to her about the opening based on her impressive qualifications and didn’t hire her,” according to a court filing. She was 47 when first interviewed, the document said.