1
00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:02,680
Speaker 1: Now it's time for our daily Bloomberg Law Brief, exploring

2
00:00:02,759 --> 00:00:05,280
Speaker 1: legal issues in the news, and Today, Bloomberg La host

3
00:00:05,360 --> 00:00:08,960
Speaker 1: Gregg Store discusses a viral memo from a Google engineer

4
00:00:09,280 --> 00:00:13,039
Speaker 1: who was fired after blasting the web company's diversity policies.

5
00:00:13,280 --> 00:00:16,800
Speaker 1: He speaks with the Bloomberg News Google reporter Mark Berken.

6
00:00:17,560 --> 00:00:21,280
Speaker 1: What specifically does it criticize Google? For? Right? I mean,

7
00:00:21,400 --> 00:00:25,119
Speaker 1: the title is Google's ideological echo chamber. It makes the

8
00:00:25,120 --> 00:00:27,440
Speaker 1: point that a lot of the efforts around diversity inclusion,

9
00:00:27,840 --> 00:00:32,240
Speaker 1: specifically around gender diversity and inclusion are actually counterproductive to

10
00:00:32,320 --> 00:00:35,240
Speaker 1: Google as a business and as a culture. And it

11
00:00:35,320 --> 00:00:37,680
Speaker 1: kind of goes through in a very ten page memo,

12
00:00:38,520 --> 00:00:41,720
Speaker 1: very lengthy point about how these biases and the author

13
00:00:41,760 --> 00:00:44,159
Speaker 1: claims that that Google is a very liberal place and

14
00:00:44,200 --> 00:00:47,320
Speaker 1: sort of des sends um. Any type of defending opinion,

15
00:00:47,440 --> 00:00:50,320
Speaker 1: whether it be conservative or something like that would disagree

16
00:00:50,320 --> 00:00:54,040
Speaker 1: with the positions on diversity are suppressed. Um and not

17
00:00:54,080 --> 00:00:57,360
Speaker 1: giving not giving enough attention. Can you give us some

18
00:00:57,440 --> 00:01:01,040
Speaker 1: sense of the gender numbers at Google? Just how male

19
00:01:01,120 --> 00:01:07,080
Speaker 1: dominated is the company so overall? And the men as

20
00:01:07,120 --> 00:01:13,520
Speaker 1: their latest figures men and women. Um. But the important

21
00:01:13,520 --> 00:01:16,040
Speaker 1: part is in the tech team, UM, the tech employees,

22
00:01:16,040 --> 00:01:20,199
Speaker 1: it's it's much more heavily skewed its men. So the company,

23
00:01:20,319 --> 00:01:22,400
Speaker 1: like a lot of tech companies, are a very difficult

24
00:01:22,440 --> 00:01:25,440
Speaker 1: time in changing that ratio, even though they have for

25
00:01:25,560 --> 00:01:29,640
Speaker 1: years now they've talked about their efforts to improve diversity internally.

26
00:01:30,520 --> 00:01:32,559
Speaker 1: Yet what are some of the steps Google has been taking?

27
00:01:32,640 --> 00:01:35,679
Speaker 1: How how hard have they been working to try to

28
00:01:35,760 --> 00:01:38,120
Speaker 1: change those numbers? Right? I mean, it's really hard to

29
00:01:38,400 --> 00:01:40,840
Speaker 1: tell from the out, so they don't typically disclose that.

30
00:01:40,959 --> 00:01:43,840
Speaker 1: Then they they've started a program called it an unconscious

31
00:01:43,840 --> 00:01:46,039
Speaker 1: biased training, and that was one of the programs that

32
00:01:46,080 --> 00:01:48,400
Speaker 1: was called out in the memo. UM. The author said

33
00:01:48,440 --> 00:01:52,840
Speaker 1: that program is unnecessary and and sort of counterproductive. UM.

34
00:01:52,920 --> 00:01:54,560
Speaker 1: Google is now facing you know, it comes with a

35
00:01:54,600 --> 00:01:57,240
Speaker 1: sensitive time for the company. They're they're facing a Department

36
00:01:57,280 --> 00:02:00,680
Speaker 1: of Labor lawsuit about their the the gap in the

37
00:02:00,720 --> 00:02:04,920
Speaker 1: gender pay. Google has argued that that law is inaccurate,

38
00:02:05,000 --> 00:02:07,040
Speaker 1: that the women are not paid any differently than men,

39
00:02:07,640 --> 00:02:10,360
Speaker 1: But they've not been willing to this closed data to

40
00:02:10,400 --> 00:02:14,720
Speaker 1: show that. As Bloomberg News Google reporter Mark Bergen speaking

41
00:02:14,720 --> 00:02:17,000
Speaker 1: with the Bloomberg Lah host Gregg's story, you can listen

42
00:02:17,040 --> 00:02:19,760
Speaker 1: to Bloomberg Law weekdays at one pm Wall Street Time

43
00:02:19,880 --> 00:02:22,880
Speaker 1: here on Bloomberg Radio and Now. Among the top legal

44
00:02:22,919 --> 00:02:26,080
Speaker 1: stories from Bloomberg Law, the City of Chicago has sued

45
00:02:26,080 --> 00:02:29,560
Speaker 1: at Turning General Jeff Sessions over proposed funding cut for

46
00:02:29,600 --> 00:02:32,800
Speaker 1: so called sanctuary cities. The Justice Department is threatened to

47
00:02:32,840 --> 00:02:35,520
Speaker 1: withhold federal funds from cities that don't cooperate with the

48
00:02:35,520 --> 00:02:40,960
Speaker 1: Trump administration's crackdown on undocumented immigrants. Chicago calls that unconstitutional.

49
00:02:41,280 --> 00:02:45,080
Speaker 1: Sessions responded by saying Chicago is beset by a culture

50
00:02:45,200 --> 00:02:48,959
Speaker 1: of lawlessness and as this morning's Bloomberg Law Brief. You

51
00:02:48,960 --> 00:02:51,520
Speaker 1: can find more legal news at Bloomberg Law dot com

52
00:02:51,560 --> 00:02:55,120
Speaker 1: and Bloomberg na dot com. Attorneys will find exceptional legal

53
00:02:55,160 --> 00:02:58,680
Speaker 1: research and business development tools there as well. Visit Bloomberg

54
00:02:58,720 --> 00:03:01,639
Speaker 1: Law dot com and Bloomberg DNA dot com for more

55
00:03:01,680 --> 00:03:02,280
Speaker 1: information