Labor Board Rules Google’s Firing of James Damore Was Legal

Google didn’t violate labor laws by firing engineer James Damore for his controversial memo criticizing its diversity policies and “politically correct monoculture”, according to the US National Labor Relations Board.

As mentioned in Boomberg, the statements in James Damore’s 3,000-word memo “regarding biological differences between the sexes were so harmful, discriminatory, and disruptive” that they fell outside protections for collective action in the workplace, an associate general counsel for the National Labor Relations Board concluded.

When Damore was dismissed in August, he accused Google of violating the employee right to engage in “concerted activity” to address workplace issues, a category which the labor board has found can include forms of activism ranging from lawsuits to strikes to social media posts.

Most of Damore’s memo was probably protected under the law, the labor board’s attorney, Jayme Sophir, stated in a memo. But Sophir went on to find that Google discharged Damore only for his “discriminatory statements,” which aren’t shielded by labor law.