Dell Slapped With New Discrimination Suit

Two Lawsuits Accuse Computer Company Of Age And Gender Discrimination

(AP)  A former human resources manager at Dell Inc. has filed a federal gender discrimination lawsuit against the computer company, the second such complaint this week.

Jill Hubley, who worked until September 2007 as a senior strategist in the Dell Americas human resources group, filed the lawsuit claiming gender discrimination Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Austin.

In the lawsuit, which is seeking class-action status, Hubley accuses Dell of engaging in "a pattern and practice of gender discrimination with respect to compensating and promoting female employees," the Austin American-Statesman reported in Friday's online edition.

Dell spokesman David Frink said he was not familiar with the Austin filing.

Four former human-resources managers at Dell also filed a lawsuit Wednesday in federal court in San Francisco, asking a judge to turn it into a class action covering thousands of former and current workers at Dell, which is based in Round Rock, Texas.

The former managers, Mildred Chapman, Angela Hopkins, Julia Mahaffey and Bethany Riches, accuse the company of paying men higher wages for equal work and failing to fairly promote women to higher positions. Chapman, 59, also accused the company of disproportionately laying off workers older than 40 after it began cutting 9,000 jobs last year.

Dell denied the accusations.

The lawsuit noted there are no women in the company's highest tier of executives. Frink has said the San Francisco lawsuit was "without merit" and said the company doesn't tolerate discrimination in any form.

"We take any claim against our recognized efforts to embrace diversity and equal employment seriously," Frink has said.

Dell employs about 80,000 people worldwide.

[hennighg]

No way. No way this is true. Dell was set up. No corporations in the US do that. We need to deregulate discrimination stuff, too. How in the world can the corporations make life wonderful AND treat people equally? Look, if you can''t earn quarter of a million dollars a year or more, you''re just not patriotic enough. And if you aren''t patriotic, you shouldn''t whine. And, dang, have the lower classes ever heard of deodorant?

[mswolfestock]

Age discrimination is rampant. A lot of companies get rid of their older workers so they won''t have to pay the employee''s retirement benefits. They think they save money that way, by starting over with a new younger worker to whom the company gives fewer benefits and a lower starting wage. However the company usually loses in the long run - they get rid of the workers with the most experience, dedication, and loyalty.

Companies usually go after middle-aged women in clerical to mid-range management positions. The day that I turned 50 years old, my company started doing all kinds of stuff to me. But they didn''t get very far with their tricks. I pay $25 a month for a labor lawyer to represent me. Job insurance is priceless.