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Female Employees Sue Dell for $500 Million

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According to a recently filed lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Dell has been mighty selective about who they’ve been firing lately.

In May of 2007 Dell had announced that they would be eliminating approximately 8,800 of their employees. These layoffs apparently focused on women and older employees, resulting in a nearly 80 percentile of Dell’s upper management team being male, according to the lawsuit.

“While Dell publicly proclaims a commitment to diversity as ‘an essential element of our corporate values,’ the reality fails to live up to the rhetoric,” states Steven Wittels, a lawyer representing the plaintiffs. “At Dell, it is an understatement to say that women face a glass ceiling; Dell’s glass ceiling is made of concrete.”

According to alleged statistical data the plaintiffs maintain that they’ve lost more than $1 million in salary and other benefits as a result of the discrimination.

But, according to Dell’s web site, their workforce is one third women and 32 percent of their U.S. vice presidents are women or minorities. Perhaps once the plaintiff’s numbers arise we’ll really see what goes on behind closed doors.

 

Image Credit: Dell

COMMENTS
avatarThe lawsuit Andy is talking

The lawsuit Andy is talking about here was actually filed by several (female) higher-ups in Dell's HR department...so you would think those are the ones who would know all the dirty little details surrounding this.  They're seeking to be certified as a class-action suit, which means they can all sue Dell as a group.  Additionally, a separate HR manager also filed her own (individual) suit against Dell here in Austin on the same day this one was filed, and it alleges the same discrimination and preferential treatment as the first suit.

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avatarAhh, good to see

that dell is still EPIC FAIL. Not only are they sexist bigots, they sell shitty computers to boot.

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avatarwhat are the REAL numbers?

"32% of US vice presidents are women or minority". Well what's the percentage of women? minority? not both together. Nice way to inflate the numbers. Either way 32% is not high enough.

I concur - Dell teh sucks

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avatarPlaying devil's adocate

Playing devil's adocate here, but what if the most qualified people were actually retained?  Should they get rid of people that were doing a better job, and are most suited for the job, and keep more women and minorities just to look good?  I don't know anything of course, just posing a possible scenario.

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avatarwell, of course not

I would rather get promoted because I am better qualified than the white male that also applied for the promotion, not because some company needed to fill a quota. So when it comes time for said company to cut back, less qualified folks should get the boot. Is Dell saying that all the less qualified folks are women and older folks? (not directed to you, Tekzel, just commenting)

BTW would I count 2x since I'm a Black female?

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avatarThe truth about Dell's

The truth about Dell's unfair HR practices is that the people they let go on a regular basis (they do this about every 18 months) are the ones who are making the most money in any given position or organizational level.  For example, if you've been at the company for several years, have become well-qualified at your job, and earned a few raises, Dell will eventually replace you with a new barely-qualified person that they can pay 20-50% less than you were costing them. 

They do this process without much regard to gender or race, so the irony of it is that anyone (like the women in this lawsuit) who have been held back and/or paid less than their peers, probably ended up with a measure of job security as a result...

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avatarThis is a test comment

Dell sucks 08

Also we should  test line breaks

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avatarI agree

I agree with everything you said.

PLEASE MAXPC, FIX LINE BREAKS.

Oh, yea, and Dell sucks.

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The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

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