(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.