By Brandon Sipherd

Google, the company bent on making the world’s information more accessible to all, believes that the race and gender makeup of its workforce is a trade secret that must remain private.  Google and four other companies argue that because they are less mature companies in a highly competitive market and the structure of their business operations—race and gender makeup—allows them to compete with more established companies.

Two years ago, San Jose’s Mercury News attempted to gain data from 15 large commercial companies located in Silicon Valley, California.  Mercury News tried convincing federal regulators to release date concerning the companies’ racial and gender makeup.  Google, Apple, Yahoo, Oracle and Applied Materials fought and won an 18-month Freedom of Information battle with Mercury News over the release of this data.  These five companies convinced the United States Department of Labor that releasing the race and gender data would be commercially damaging by revealing the companies’ business strategy to competitors.  However, a sixth company, Hewlett-Packard, fought the release and lost, forcing it to turn over the race and gender data of its workers to federal regulators.

Among the 15 companies asked to provide race and gender data, nine—including Intel, Cisco Systems, eBay, AMD, Sanmina and Sun Microsystems—agreed to allow the Department of Labor to release the data.  According to these companies’ head officers, there was nothing in the data that needed to be kept hidden from the public.  In fact, many of these companies were proud of their diversity programs and their efforts to create an equal workforce.

Many employment law experts refute the idea that public disclosure of race and gender data would really allow competitors to discern a company’s business strategy, especially a large technology company.  Instead, they argue the social cost of releasing potentially damaging race and gender data is very real and large, and these companies are only trying to prevent the public from obtaining this information.

A company’s race and gender data is important in determining the existence of discrimination in today’s workforce.  The data provided in these releases help determine how society is fairing in racial and gender equality.  These companies are especially important because they are fairly new and did not exist when race and gender discrimination were accepted and pervasive in the United States.  The data from these companies would give a fresh look at how the workforce has really changed since discrimination based on a person’s race and gender became illegal.

The data obtained by Mercury News shows that while the collective workforce of the 10 companies grew by 16 percent from 1999 to 2005, the population of black workers decreased by 16 percent and Hispanic workers decreased by 11 percent.  In 2005, only 2,200 of the 30,000 workers in Silicon Valley were black or Hispanic.  Among the 5,900 managers during the same time period, about 300 were black or Hispanic—a decrease of 20 percent from 1999.  Woman in managerial positions dropped 20 percent during that time—a 28 percent decrease.

Recently, Google donated $8 million to help underrepresented minorities pursue careers in technology.  Yet, Google continues to decline making public the race and gender makeup of its 20,000 workers for competitive reasons.

Leeds Morelli & Brown, PC is a nationally recognized leader in the area of employment law.  We believe that discrimination based on a person’s race and gender has no place in a democratic society.  Our firm has had considerable success in matters of employment discrimination throughout Long Island and the New York City area.  We take great pride not only in providing quality legal service and representation, but also in being there for clients when they need it most.

For more information, contact Leeds, Morelli and Brown, PC at 1-800-585-4658 for a free consultation.