SmallBizResource Blog -- Women in Business

Wednesday's Woman: Four Female Ex-Dell Execs Sue For Discrimination

Posted by Gayle Kesten Wednesday, Nov 26, 2008, 11:17 AM ET

A quartet of senior-level women who were among a significant layoff at Dell are singing anything but the computer maker's praises, instead filing a class-action lawsuit claiming gender and age discrimination.

The suit -- launched late last month by four high-level managers who, as HR specialists in Dell's human resources department, were "intimately familiar with the company's employment practices" -- seeks $500 million in damages for "thousands of current and former Dell female managers and executives, and older employees disproportionately affected by the company's mass layoffs in 2007 and 2008," according to the release first announcing the litigation.

"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," said Steven Wittels, class counsel in the case, in the statement. "At Dell, it is an understatement to say that women face a glass ceiling; Dell's glass ceiling is made of concrete."

That's some headache, compounded by the $1 million each plaintiff says she has lost in terms of salary and benefits because of Dell's alleged discrimination. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, also points out that now eight out of 10 high-level managers at Dell are now male -- an interesting juxtaposition for a company that has been honored many times for its diversity programs, PCWorld points out.

For its part, Dell denies the allegations and says the suit is without merit, telling InformationWeek that "Dell does not tolerate discrimination in any aspect of employment and will vigorously defend any claim that we are not acting in accordance with the law or our policies."

Also of note, a second suit against Dell was filed by a fifth former-HR exec, whose complaint involves "general discrimination against women at Dell with respect to the compensation, career opportunities, lateral transfer, placement, promotion, retention and termination of female employees."

Whether either suit has staying power has yet to be decided, but just for the fun of it, take a look at the faces of Dell's executive team. Hmm.

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The Wednesday's Woman series is written for today's community of hard-working, small-business women, featuring profiles, industry trends, research, work/life balance issues and other topics of interest. Send your ideas to Gayle Kesten.

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