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Facebook facing discrimination lawsuit from former female employee

Mark Zuckerberg and co may soon have to part with a substantial amount of money if a former employee is successful in her bid to sue Facebook over sexual harrassment.

Chia Hong, a Taiwanese national who worked as a program manager and technology partner from 2010, was fired from the company in 2013. She claims that while she was a Facebook employee, she was subjected to gender discrimination, sexual harassment, racial discrimination and wrongful discharge and has therefore filed a lawsuit against the social media giant.

Among the claims are that Hong had “her professional opinions belittled or or ignored at group meetings in which she was one of the only employees of Chinese descent; plaintiff being told that she was not integrated into the team because she looks different and talks different and was asked “why she did not just stay home and take care of her child instead of having a career,”” according to the lawsuit filed by Lawless and Lawless, the firm representing Hong.

According to Hong, she was fired from Facebook for speaking up about the alleged discriminatory treatment. She is therefore asking to compensated for damages including lost wages, earnings, retirement and other benefits.

In an email circulated to various US news sites, Facebook responded to the claims stating the following:

“We work extremely hard on issues related to diversity, gender and equality, and we believe we’ve made progress. In this case we have substantive disagreements on the facts, and we believe the record shows the employee was treated fairly.”

Last year Facebook, along with other big tech companies, released a diversity report revealing how its workforce is divided up between males and females and people of different races. According to the company, 31% of its global workforce is made up of women.

“Diversity is something that we’re treating as everyone’s responsibility at Facebook, and the challenge of finding qualified but underrepresented candidates is one that we’re addressing as part of a strategic effort across Facebook,” the company said at the time.

Below is a copy of the lawsuit filed by Lawless and Lawless on Hong’s behalf.

Chia Hong vs. Facebook

[Via – The Verge, image – CC by 2.0/Marco Paköeningrat]

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