The U.S. Department of Labor recently filed a lawsuit against Google in an attempt to obtain compensation data from the tech giant as part of a routine compliance evaluation. The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs asked Google to submit information about the company’s equal opportunity program and practices in September 2015, but Google did not comply, according to the lawsuit.
Since Google is a federal contractor, it is required to let the government review documents and other relevant information that is relevant to the company’s compliance with equal employment laws.
“Like other federal contractors, Google has a legal obligation to provide relevant information requested in the course of a routine compliance evaluation,” said OFCCP Acting Director Thomas M. Dowd. “Despite many opportunities to produce this information voluntarily, Google has refused to do so. We filed this lawsuit so we can obtain the information we need to complete our evaluation.”
If Google does not comply, the OFCCP says it will ask the court to cancel all of Google’s current contracts with the government, and also prevent it from obtaining contracts in the future. However, Google says it has provided “hundreds of thousands” of records, including information related to compensation, to the OFCCP, a Google spokesperson told TechCrunch.
“We’re very committed to our affirmative action obligations, and to improving the diversity of our workforce, and have been very vocal about the importance of these issues,” the spokesperson said. “As a federal contractor, we’re familiar with our obligations and have worked collaboratively with the OFCCP.”
The spokesperson went on to say that the requests made by the OFCCP “that are the subject of the complaint are overbroad in scope, or reveal confidential data, and we’ve made this clear to the OFCCP, to no avail. These requests include thousands of employees’ private contact information which we safeguard rigorously. We hope to continue working with OFCCP to resolve this matter.”