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5.12.19 11 COMMERCIAL 16.6.2022 GOOGLE is to pay $118 million (£97.7m) to settle an equal pay lawsuit covering thousands of female employ- ees in the US who argued they were paid less than male colleagues. e settlement in Ellis v Google LLC covers an estimated 15,500 women who worked in 236 job positions in Califor- nia since September 2013. Independent experts will also assess the tech giant's "levelling at hire" prac- tices and pay equity studies. is work will be supervised by an external settle- ment monitor over the next three years. e five-year long legal battle centred on claims that Google failed to pay men and women doing substantially similar roles equally. e four lead claimants included Kelly Ellis, a software engineer who worked at Google for four years; Holly Pease, who held numerous technical leadership roles over 10 years; Kelli Wisuri, who held various sales and operations roles for two-and-a-half years; and Heidi Lamar, a preschool and infant/toddler teacher who worked at Google's on-site childcare facility for four years. e initial lawsuit said Larmer was paid $18.51 an hour, while a male coun- terpart with fewer qualifications and less experience received $21 an hour. Google was accused last year of paying its female employees $17,000 a year less than male staff doing the same job. e claimants had originally sought $600 million in damages. e court is yet to grant final settle- ment approval. If approved, a third-par- ty administrator will distribute settle- ment amounts based on an objective formula to each person covered by the claim. Pease said: "As a woman who's spent her entire career in the tech industry, I'm optimistic that the actions Google has agreed to take as part of this settle- ment will ensure more equity for wom- en. "Google, since its founding, has led the tech industry. ey also have an op- portunity to lead the charge to ensure inclusion and equity for women in tech." Jim Finberg, a lawyer at Altshuler Ber- zon, said: "Google has long been a tech- nology leader. We are delighted that in this settlement agreement and order Google is also affirming its commit- ment to be a leader in ensuring pay eq- uity and equal employment opportunity for all of their employees." A spokesperson for Google told US business news site Insider: "While we strongly believe in the equity of our policies and practices, after nearly five years of litigation, both sides agreed that resolution of the matter, without any admission or findings, was in the best interest of everyone, and we're very pleased to reach this agreement. "We are absolutely committed to pay- ing, hiring and levelling all employees fairly and equally and for the past nine years we have run a rigorous pay equity analysis to make sure salaries, bonuses and equity awards are fair." Last year Google was ordered to pay $3.84m following allegations of gender and race discrimination. Google to pay $118m to settle equal pay lawsuit in US Euro zone trade deficit almost doubles in April THE euro zone's trade deficit almost dou- bled in April from the previous month af- ter an already record expansion in March, and industrial production increased over the same period on the month, official data showed on Wednesday. e European Union's statistics office Eurostat said the 19 countries sharing the euro recorded a trade deficit, unad- justed for seasonal swings, of 32.4 billion euros in April compared with a 16.4 bil- lion euro deficit in March. In April 2021 there was a surplus of 14.9 billion euros. Adjusted for seasonal swings, the euro zone trade gap was 31.7 billion euros. e unadjusted value of imports in April rocketed by 39.8% year-on-year, Eurostat said, while the value of exports rose only 15.7%. e EU's trade deficit with Russia - its main energy supplier - more than quad- rupled to 62.6 billion euros in the first quarter from 14.7 billion in the same period of 2021. e change in the value of EU energy imports was the most spectacular, with the deficit in energy trade almost tri- pling to 183.6 billion euros in the first four months of the year compared to the same period in 2021. e trade gap with China, Europe's biggest trading partner, almost doubled to 122 billion euros in the January-April period from 65.8 billion a year earlier. e trade deficit with Norway, another large energy supplier, surged to 23.9 bil- lion euros in the first quarter from 500 million euros in the same period of last year. Industrial production in the 19 euro zone countries increased 0.4% month- on-month, but saw a 2% year-on-year decline. Economist polled by Reuters had ex- pected a 0.5% monthly rise, and a 1.1% annual drop. Production of energy rose the most month-on-month by 5.4%, followed by intermediate goods by 0.7%, non-du- rable consumer goods by 0.4% and du- rable consumer goods by 0.2% against March, while production of capital goods fell by 0.2%. In year-on-year terms, capital goods plunged 9% in April and intermediate goods were down 0.3%, while produc- tion of energy rose by 1.5%, non-dura- ble consumer goods by 4.7% and dura- ble consumer goods by 5.7%. Container terminals pictured during a flood in the harbour, in Hamburg, Germany

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