NLRB rejects complaint by Google worker fired for diversity memo

The National Labor Relations Board rejected a complaint by the Google engineer who was fired last year for writing a controversial critique of the tech giant's diversity policy.

The federal labor enforcement agency said James Damore's memo was not protected speech as Damore claimed but rather constituted sexual harassment, so the company was right to fire him.

"The charging party’s use of stereotypes based on purported biological differences between women and men should not be treated differently than the types of conduct the board found unprotected in these cases," wrote NLRB Associate General Counsel Jayme Sophir in a Jan. 16 advice memo recently made public. Sophir said the memo's statements were "discriminatory and constituted sexual harassment, notwithstanding effort to cloak comments with 'scientific' references and analysis, and notwithstanding 'not all women' disclaimers."

On Jan. 23, the board officially agreed with Sophir's conclusions.

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