Fired Google engineer's lawsuit claims discrimination

NEW YORK (KGO) -- The former Google tech engineer who ignited a national firestorm after writing a controversial memo about gender inequality in the tech industry is back in the spotlight.

James Damore filed suit against his former employer on Monday, accusing Google of discrimination.

Damore says he stands by what he wrote in his Google memo, feedback he says Google solicited following a diversity and inclusion summit he attended.

RELATED: Google firing sparks potential lawsuits over gender pay gap discrimination

"I would welcome the chance to go back to Google, and I really feel like I could improve things for everyone there," said Damore during a press conference Monday.

"I suggested multiple ways to improve the workforce and address the gender gap but I was attacked for that," he added.

Google fired Damore last summer, his attorney Harmeet Dhillon says, for "perpetuating gender stereotypes."

RELATED: Google engineer pens controversial memo

Monday, Dhillon filed a class action lawsuit in Santa Clara County Superior Court on behalf of Damore and another former Google employee, David Gudeman, who was let go in 2016.

The lawsuit includes three sub-classes, Conservatives, men and Caucasians.

Damore says he faced discrimination at Google. "Certain programs aren't open to certain people and if you declare a certain type of opinion, then you're strongly looked down upon," said Damore.

Damore says he did not formally report it.

"We were sort of brainwashed to believe that this was just the natural course of things and so it is really unfortunate that I didn't report them, but I believe that the document that I wrote and many of the comments where people shared their own experiences within it does show that this was a common experience," said Damore.

Dhillon says other Google employees have told her they want to join the lawsuit but fear retaliation.

"People who had been hounded out of their jobs because they were conservatives, people who had been refused promotions because they were men, people who had been refused promotions or transfers because they were white," said Dhillon.

The lawsuit includes screenshots of "anti-conservative postings," "Google endorsing political violence," and "Anti-Caucasian Postings."

"There's kind of a 'Lord of the Flies' mentality there where a person can be singled out and then group shamed and bullied and fired and that's what happened to James as if they're not a human being," said Dhillon.

In an emailed statement to ABC7 News, a Google spokesperson wrote, "We look forward to defending against Mr. Damore's lawsuit in court."

"This lawsuit is really meant to help everyone both at Google and people affected by Google's products and potential future employees," said Damore.

Click here to view the full complaint.

Click here for the latest stories and videos about Google.