Looks like Google has bought itself some trouble by not sharing its employment data with the United States government. The company is now getting sued by the U.S. Department of Labour.
The department lodged a complaint against Google on the 4th of January. The department claims that Google refused to disclose employee salaries and benefits to the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) during a regular anti- discrimination audit. The OFCCP is now making efforts in the court so that Google complies with its directives.
The data is required because of Google’s role as a federal Contractor. Google provides cloud computing services to various federal agencies and the military. So this way it is connected to the government and is obligated to let the government access records that would prove that Google’s hiring system is not discriminated on the basis of race, religion, sexual orientation, gender or more.
In the company’s defense, a Google spokesperson said the company wants to safeguard the employee’s private information and would much rather not reveal it.
After the company repeatedly refusing to provide the names, contact information, job history and salary history details of it’s employees to the government, the Labour Department has taken a grave decision and is now requesting the court to cancel the tech company’s current government contracts and prevent it from signing any new ones. Unless of course, the company agrees to provide the government with the details it is seeking.
Google is not the only company doing business with the government, that is at the receiving end of such scrutiny from the regulators. The Labour Department had also sued Palantir, a secretive data software start-up, in September for allegedly discriminating against Asian job applicants.
Well, Google certainly doesn’t want to be kept out of the race for the highly lucrative government contracts. The company has said that it hopes to continue working with the Department to resolve the matter. However, whether or not the courts have to step in and act mediator before the matter is resolved, remains to be seen.
