Summary: Tina Huang has filed a lawsuit against Twitter, alleging that mostly males are selected for promotions.
A woman who used to work at Twitter as a software engineer is now suing the social media company for supposedly using a promotion process that quietly favors men over women. According to CNET.com, Tina Huang argues that Twitter will only alert certain individuals of job opportunities and promotions—and that these individuals are most often male.
Last year, Twitter sued the United States over its surveillance rules.
On Thursday, Huang filed a proposed class-action lawsuit in a state court in California. The complaint, which was filed in a San Francisco courthouse, was filed just one day after a former Facebook employee accused the company of committing discrimination. According to NBC News, Huang worked in several engineering positions from 2009 to 2014. On Saturday, a San Francisco Superior Court Judge issued a ruling allowing Ellen Pao, who has filed a suit against Klein Perkins Caulfield & Byers, a venture capital firm, for $16 million, to seek punitive damages should a jury issue a ruling in her favor. According to Pao’s suit, the firm retaliated against her after she complained about sexual discrimination in the workplace.
Facebook and Twitter are not alone in facing discrimination lawsuits. On average, tech companies are 70 percent white and male, according to their own statistics. These numbers, combined with a male-dominated culture, have sparked heated arguments and several lawsuits in Silicon Valley.
In 2013, a judge dismissed a gender bias lawsuit that was filed against Wal-Mart.
Huang’s complaint alleges that Twitter has neither a formal job application nor a promotion process. Instead of formal processes, “secret” management committees figure out who will get a promotion without job postings or reviews. The complaint alleges this has led to a gender imbalance in Twitter’s workforce. According to The Verge, the promotion process works by sending mysterious “shoulder taps” to certain employees to notify them of new positions.
The complaint reads, “Promotion into Twitter’s senior technical positions is based on subjective judgments, by committees that are comprised of and dependent on upper management at Twitter, and predominantly male. These judgments are tainted with conscious or unconscious prejudices and gender-based stereotypes, which explains why so few women employees at Twitter advance to senior and leadership positions.”
Chief legal officers continue to report significant gender pay gaps.
Twitter denies the accusations. It released a statement, saying, “Ms. Huang resigned voluntarily from Twitter, after our leadership tried to persuade her to stay. She was not fired. Twitter is deeply committed to a diverse and supportive workplace, and we believe the facts will show Ms. Huang was treated fairly.”
Huang’s complaint asks “all current and former female employees of Twitter denied promotions in the three years prior to the filing of this complaint” to join the lawsuit.
Source: CNET
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