• 11
  • August
    2010

Last Thursday, the California Supreme Court ruled that alleged "stray comments" in the case of a sacked Google employee can be used as evidence of age discrimination. The decision was part of a ruling that allowed Brian Reid's case against the Internet Goliath to continue.

In filing his age discrimination lawsuit earlier this year, Reid accused co-workers and superiors of referring to him as "an old fuddy-duddy," in addition to other age-based names. Last week, the court determined that such remarks could be used to form the basis of an age-discrimination case even if they were not a factor in letting the employee go.

Understandably, such a ruling could have implications for other workers beyond the Reid case. However, California Supreme Court Justices only ruled that the remarks were admissible in court, not that they were substantive or would be considered sufficient once presented in court.

They may be admissible, but they may also be ruled inadmissible as evidence.

Reid sued Google following his termination from the company in 2004. Prior to that, he had served as Google's engineering director. In firing him, superiors claimed that he was not a "cultural fit" and claimed that their decision was based solely on performance.

Reid claimed that Google, a notoriously young company, more or less instituted an employee policy in which age was a major factor. Google has denied claims of age discrimination, but also declined to offer any substantive proof that the age range in corporate moved far beyond mid-30's.

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