A former recruiter at Facebook hired to diversify its workforce has filed a $100m lawsuit against the social media giant, alleging she was discriminated against based on her race and disability, as well as harassed.
Anastasia Boone Talton and her legal representatives filed the complaint against Facebook with California’s Superior Court of San Mateo on 17 March.
According to court documents filed by Boone Talton, the complaint for damages accuses Facebook of eight offences including discrimination and harassment, failure to accommodate her disability, retaliation, wrongful termination and breach of contract. She has requested a trial by jury.
In a video posted on her Facebook and Twitter pages, Boone Talton sits with her lawyer who reads her public statement.
‘I’m here with my client, Anastasia Boone Talton, a senior talent acquisition specialist, who was hired to diversify Facebook,’ she says.
‘We are here to announce that Ms Boone Talton was not able to do her job, and as such she will be filing a case for $100m against Facebook in the San Mateo Superior Court.’
In the video, Boone Talton’s experience as a diversity recruiter is described by her lawyer. She says that Facebook only ‘paid lip service’ to its diversity goals, and would fly candidates out to be interviewed at their company headquarters just to meet a quota.
‘[Facebook] would simply fly out a candidate just to make the quota of saying that they interviewed at least one diverse candidate, but nine times out of ten, that person was not hired,’ her Lawyer says.
The lawsuit alleges that when Boone Talton complained to Facebook about what she had seen, she was excluded from company social events and was told she was not a ‘cultural fit’ after asking for her medical issues to be accommodated.
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SOURCE: Daily Mail, Chris Jewers
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