An African American employee has filed a federal complaint against Facebook alleging that it discriminates the black employees and job applicants in hiring, evaluations, promotions, and pay.
Oscar Veneszee, Jr., has filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. He is working as a recruiter for Facebook’s infrastructure team and Black US Navy Veteran since 2017 and focuses on hiring people of different color and veterans. He alleges that even after his excellent performance at the work, he is not being evaluated and promoted fairly.
The complaint says,” Facebook’s deeds have not matched its rhetoric. There may be Black Lives Matter posters on Facebook’s walls, but black workers don’t see that phrase reflecting how they are treated in Facebook’s own workplace.” He also added in his complaint that people of color especially black people are underrepresented, don’t feel respected or heard, and don’t have an equal opportunity to advance.
The complaint is filed with the federal agency that is responsible for the enforcement of civil rights law in workplace discrimination. The complaint also alleged that Facebook is violating federal and state law by discriminating the black employees and applicants n hiring, evaluations, promotions, and pay and therefore creating a hostile work environment.
The two rejected applicants, Howard Winns Jr. and Jazsmin Smith, has also joined the complaint and alleges their applications were rejected for the positions at Facebook despite being well-qualified.
Responding back to the complaint, Facebook spokesperson Pamela Austin stated, “We believe it is essential to provide all employees with a respectful and safe working environment. We take discrimination allegations seriously and investigates every case.”
This is not the first time that the company is facing such racial discrimination allegations, there were various complaints registered in the recent past too. Employees, various civil rights groups, and more than 500 advertisers are seeking a strong stance and action on hate speech moderation on the Facebook platform.
Racial discrimination has led to the biggest revolutionary movement i.e. Black Lives Matter and has caused huge irate among the black people leading to BLM protests not in the US only but across the globe. The movement got momentum and bolstered after the brutal killing of an African American George Floyd by police.
