A former Meta Platforms Inc. employee can take to trial all his claims, which include age and disability discrimination, against the social media platform, a judge ruled Tuesday.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Maureen Duffy-Lewis rejected arguments by Meta attorneys that plaintiff Gary Glouner, now 58, was wrongly trying to apply California law to alleged wrongful conduct which occurred outside of the state. The defense attorneys also maintained some claims, including retaliation, were barred by the statute of limitations. Meta was known at the time by its original name, Facebook.
“A simple reading of the complaint can lead one to surmise that the ultimate firing was a retaliatory act and, therefore, within the limitations period,” the judge wrote.
In his suit, Glouner alleges then-Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg never responded when the plaintiff sent him a detailed email, listing his various complaints about what he reasonably believed to be a discriminatory, ageist culture at Facebook.
Glouner’s other allegations include failure to accommodate, intentional infliction of emotional distress and unfair business practices. He filed a similar suit in September 2017 when he was 52 years old, but dropped it two years later `without prejudice,” leaving open the door for him to file the current complaint.
Glouner says he was hired in October 2007 by another company that was acquired by Facebook in 2013. Although his job title was “partner manager, “in simple terms, Mr. Glouner was a salesman,” the suit states.
The complaint states Glouner is a cancer survivor and suffers from a physical disability that causes him to have seizures, clinical depression, an anxiety disorder and reduced cognitive abilities.
After several of his co-workers over age 50 were fired and replaced by younger workers, management explained that the terminated employees were a “poor cultural fit,” that they “didn’t get it” and that they “didn’t move fast enough,” the suit alleges.
Glouner took the terms to mean that older workers were considered “culturally awkward within Facebook’s work environment” and that they were not as energetic or enthusiastic as their younger counterparts, according to his court papers.
The plaintiff also believes that Facebook preferred “digital natives,” meaning someone young enough to have grown up using Facebook or other similar social media platforms, the suit states.
Glouner routinely heard younger Facebook employees citing a 2007 Zuckerberg speech in which the CEO said “young people are just smarter,” according to the lawsuit.
Glouner alleges that in retaliation for coming forward about alleged age discrimination, he was wrongly accused of poor performance and being “unfocused” and “not moving fast enough.”
Glouner says he was assigned a project in August 2015 that required detailed, in-depth analytics and was different from what he had done before. He alleges the assignment was an attempt to make him fall short and give the company grounds to fire him.
Glouner suffered an orthopedic injury at work in August or September 2015 and still later had a seizure, according to his court papers.
While on medical leave in October 2015, he claims he was falsely accused of taking unauthorized time off and told he was failing to meet Facebook’s work expectations.
Glouner also was told he was going to be fired as of Nov. 1, 2015, and he was offered $36,000 in exchange for releasing all claims he may have against Facebook, according to his complaint.
Glouner was indeed fired on that date — he alleges it was because of his complaints about age and disability discrimination — and believes he was replaced with someone younger who was paid less than he was, according to his lawsuit.
