EMPLOYMENT LAW: Former Executive Testifies in his Age Discrimination Suit against Google

San Francisco – A 60-year-old former executive of Google Inc. has testified in a hearing about the age discrimination suit he filed against the Internet search giant at the California Supreme Court yesterday morning.

According to Brian Reid’s testimony, he was wrongfully terminated in 2004 at the age of 54 because he was “not a cultural fit” for the company. Paul Kilion, who represents Reid, said to the court that “not a cultural fit” is just another word for being too old.

According to Kilion, Reid started working for Google to be the company’s director of engineering and operations.

However, he was transferred to a dead-end job working on a small program for graduate students before he got fired.

These claims were denied by the Mountain View Based company.

Google’s lawyer Paul Cane told the court that it had nothing to do with age.

According to cane, the company’s culture is based on values such as being “work intensive, do it the hard way, find a way to get better results,” and not on age.

Cane also told the court that the reason Reid was laid off was because the post that he had been transferred to was eliminated.

Google is also trying to appeal a decision made by a state appeals court that Reid could have a trial for his lawsuit at the Santa Clara Superior court.

They maintain that there is no sufficient evidence that would justify allowing the trial and the lawsuit to proceed.

Chief Justice Ronal George is also mulling if the claims in the lawsuit can be considered age discrimination since Reid was hired in his 50s.

Kilion answered the judge saying that Reid was hired because Google needed older workers to get capital funding as it was a start up company back then.