Google faces court in age discrimination case

The California Supreme Court has ruled that a Google ageism case should go to a jury trial

The California Supreme Court has ruled that Google will have to defend itself in front of a jury against charges of age discrimination.

Brian Reid, a former Google director, is claiming that he was fired because of his age, and that he was routinely ridiculed by younger staff. He is suing after he lost his job and stock options that would be worth millions today.

The case was initially dismissed, but the Supreme Court found that the so-called 'stray remarks doctrine' applied and the case could go ahead.

This broadly states that disparaging remarks made by those not directly in the chain of command can be considered as evidence.

According to court documents (PDF) Reid, then 52, was hired by Google as director of operations and director of engineering in June 2002.

Despite receiving initial excellent reviews, younger members of the company routinely described Reid's ideas as "obsolete" and "too old to matter", and his CD jewel cases were referred to as "LPs".

After an email from Google co-founder Sergey Brin about managing employee payrolls, Google's vice president of engineering, Wayne Rosing, replied detailing the plans for his staff.

"We are looking for a senior director (note I did not capitalise senior) or vice president level person to run this operation," he said.