back to article HP Inc, HPE both slapped with racism, ageism lawsuit

The two offshoots of Hewlett Packard are being sued in the US for allegedly discriminating against African Americans and older workers. A class-action suit, filed Monday in a California district court, claims that both HP Inc and HPE unfairly targeted workers for evaluations and layoffs based on their age and/or race. "Race …

  1. Youngone Silver badge

    Unsure what to think

    I wonder if it really is racism here. I mean two of the complainants are in Georgia, so it's entirely possible but if the HP's are anything like the huge multinational I work for, it could just be cost cutting.

    These guys are all older, more experienced workers, so presumably cost more to employ.

    My PHB's are in another round of getting rid of the older more experienced people (gender and race doesn't come into it) and bugger the customers.

    I am quite sure we will lose market share because it but HP has been doing that anyway for years so it won't make much difference to them.

    Either way, it's a poor way to treat people.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Unsure what to think

      The fact that these gentlemen live in higher concentrated African American areas doesn't preclude the employees feeling discriminated against. The core essence of the complaint seems to be the supervisors catering to their favorites who by the complaint are young and White.

      The reality is these guys may not have been skilled to play the corporate politics at HP and as the layoffs came they were not part of the "in" network.

      IT is struggling with embracing older workers and instead of offering reduced salaries, each new CEO comes in and cuts them off the books with RIF packages. New inventions of old ideas don't tend to work as these big behemoths are still struggling with profitability. In IT if you don't move up to Sr. Management or work on a seriously complicated legacy system (Mainframe engineers rejoice!) prepared to be shown the door between 55-60.

      AT&T at least told their workers to adapt or die. I ponder if it would be cheaper to retrain older workers and use them versus starting over every 20 years.

      1. Eric Olson

        Re: Unsure what to think

        The reality is these guys may not have been skilled to play the corporate politics at HP and as the layoffs came they were not part of the "in" network.

        Actually, that's exactly what the suit is alleging. Through a lack of corporate controls and standards on performance evaluation, promotion decisions, and termination process, subjective criteria were used for decision-making. These may have included considerations outside of the scope of the job, including protected classes of people that are based on age and race.

        This is why HR in many companies insist on a structured hiring and firing process, with retention of notes, emails, etc. that are related to the decisions. Any indication that a decision was made using factors unrelated to the job in question could be used against the hiring manager or company later on. Discovery can be a very embarrassing process for a company, as internal documents, hand-scrawled notes, hallway conversations, etc. find their way into the courtroom. Even if cleared, HP now has a PR issue at hand that can escalate and make it harder to attract talent in the future.

        Simply put, HR policies are a pain in the ass, but they are they to protect the company's reputation and keep it out of the courtroom. An ounce of prevention....

        1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

          Re: Unsure what to think

          "This is why HR in many companies insist on a structured hiring and firing process, with retention of notes, emails, etc. that are related to the decisions...

          Simply put, HR policies are a pain in the ass, but they are they to protect the company's reputation and keep it out of the courtroom."

          In other words, whatever you do, make sure the paper trail looks OK.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Slavery is the cornerstone of U.S. economics.

    To see this sort of treatment inside of tech companies is not surprising, as the U.S. has always relied upon slavery and indentured servitude to elevate the white elites.

    Slavery in the U.S. was never abolished, it just undergoes a name change every once in a while. Today it's called "independent contracting", or "H1-B" if you're an immigrant.

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

    2. Throatwarbler Mangrove Silver badge
      FAIL

      Re: Slavery is the cornerstone of U.S. economics.

      I think actual slaves might take issue with your cavalier dismissal of their circumstances by comparing them with people who, in fact, get paid for their work. Indentured servitude might be a more apt comparison for H-1B workers under some circumstances but not slavery.

  3. luis river

    Hypocrisy and lie

    Layoffs based on their age is significative and it is very...very...very true. Enterprises is their habitual procedure in economical crisis and when it is dont are , nothing protect that employees. The high management deceive their empleyoes about company loyalty and blah, blah, blah but after they there are despiadate about killer Jobs. Monsters !!!

  4. Stevie

    Bah!

    "We have stamped out racism in the workplace! I didn't think we had a Chinaman's chance of making that work!"

    1. I3N
      Facepalm

      Re: Bah!

      Only by making it the norm ....

      Big boss is Taiwanese, not the guy on application ...

      https://trademarks.justia.com/874/99/chink-87499767.html

  5. I3N
    Coat

    Ah the magic number or how the game is rigged ...

    As long as an equal number of employees, age under 40, are also shown the door, everything is cool

    1. bombastic bob Silver badge
      Devil

      Re: Ah the magic number or how the game is rigged ...

      well, the population of employees would theoretically be higher for "over 40' than "under 40" due to the birth rate reduction over the last few decades as compared to what it was before... yeah, society is becoming "older" but everyone already knew this.

      So targeting a lot of 'older' employees is probably happening. The question is whether this 'targeting' is due to the age, wage, or population age distribution. Wage is probably the most likely.

      As for the assumption that a "predominantly Caucasian" group of employees, who allegedly make the layoff decisions, would in any way FAVOR the retention of Caucasians over anyone else, is extermely PREPOSTEROUS in my view. I don't personally know anyone who'd say "let's lay off all of the black employees because we're Caucasians". I doubt very many exist in the 21st century, in spite of SJW whining.

      Anyway, this suit may have no merit, but as an "old guy" in my 50's, I can see a bit of age discrimination happening here and there. But it may also be WAGE discrimination, as in "do we want the guy with 30 years experience who knows he can earn twice as much, or will we take our chances on the 'just graduated' guy who doesn't know what he's worth, then pay him HALF AS MUCH".

      It may just be WAGE, and not age. Yeah.

      [but if they want the job done in HALF the time, even though I charge twice as much, they'll hire ME instead]

      1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

        Re: Ah the magic number or how the game is rigged ...

        "Wage is probably the most likely."

        No longer being [young and] impressionable is another.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    strange..

    Quite a few of the people in my region, would take their arm off to the elbow to get out with a package.

    It would also be fair to say that, those with more years would be even more keen to go.

  7. HmmmYes

    I dont think HP<whatever> are racist or agist.

    They fuck over everyone.

    1. Lotaresco

      "I dont think HP<whatever> are racist or agist. They fuck over everyone."

      And they really don't like it when they get the same treatment back. Their attempts to impose a pay cut in Europe (French response Ferk Oeuf!) and their attempt to slash contractor pay in the UK backfired spectacularly leaving Ms Whitman spitting out her dummy followed by a lot of feathers.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    HPE

    I know for a fact that since 2015, HPE has been hiring all races away from IBM in their local Storage Unit. Neither age, race, nor Gender kept any of those Tech's from leaving IBM's Server Hardware Support units and being hired over to HPE. At least one of those is a Black Male Team Lead. SHRUG.

    1. GuildenNL

      Re: HPE

      HPE's layoffs since 2011 have been openly touting ageism. Of course, it's nothing to do with skills or even value extracted. It's purely pay related.

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