May 9 (Reuters) - Google agreed to pay $50 million to

settle a lawsuit accusing the search engine company of systemic

racial bias against Black employees.

A preliminary settlement covering more than 4,000 Google

employees in California and New York was filed on Thursday

evening in the Oakland, California federal court, and requires a

judge's approval.

Plaintiffs in the proposed class action said Google has a

"racially biased corporate culture" where management steers

Blacks to lower-level jobs, pays them less, downgrades their

performance ratings and denies them opportunities to advance.

According to the complaint, Black employees comprised only

4.4% of Google's workforce and 3% of its leadership in 2021.

The plaintiff April Curley, hired to expand outreach to

historically Black colleges, said Google denied her promotions,

stereotyped her as an "angry" Black woman, and fired her after

six years as she prepared a report on its alleged racial bias.

Managers also allegedly denigrated Black employees by

declaring they were not "Googley" enough or lacked

"Googleyness," which the plaintiffs called racial dog whistles.

Google, a unit of Mountain View, California-based Alphabet

, denied wrongdoing in agreeing to settle, and said it

fully complied with all applicable laws. It had no immediate

additional comment on Friday.

The lawsuit began in March 2022 after a regulator now known

as the California Civil Rights Department started investigating

Google's treatment of Black female employees.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs may seek up to $12.5 million of

the settlement fund in fees. On Monday, the lawyers dismissed

related claims brought on behalf of job applicants, citing

evidence they had gathered and Google's "reasoned arguments."

The case is Curley et al v Google LLC, U.S. District Court,

Northern District of California, No. 22-01735.