Aug 21 (Reuters) - IBM ( IBM ) is accused in a new lawsuit of

forcing out a high-performing white consultant in order to

further the company's goals of building a more diverse

workforce.

The lawsuit filed late Tuesday in Grand Rapids, Michigan,

federal court is the latest from America First Legal, a

conservative group founded by ex-Trump administration officials,

to claim that corporate diversity policies violate federal

anti-discrimination laws.

Plaintiff Randall Dill says he was placed on a performance

improvement plan in July 2023 despite receiving only positive

feedback in his seven years as a senior managing consultant at

IBM ( IBM ). The plan was impossible to complete and Dill was fired last

October, according to the complaint.

Dill says IBM ( IBM ) had race and sex quota systems that guided

hiring and promotion decisions and that it based executives'

bonuses in part on whether they had met those goals, giving them

a strong incentive to push out white men like him.

"Plaintiff suffered significant damages, including lost

wages, loss of professional and career development

opportunities, and significant non-economic injuries, including

humiliation, embarrassment, and loss of reputation," Dill's

lawyers wrote in the complaint.

IBM ( IBM ) did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The lawsuit accuses IBM ( IBM ) of race and sex discrimination in

violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which

bars workplace discrimination, and Section 1981 of the Civil

Rights Act of 1866, which prohibits race discrimination in

contracts.

America First Legal has made similar claims against a slew

of major companies, including in about two dozen complaints

seeking investigations by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity

Commission.

The group has also filed several lawsuits, most on behalf of

individual plaintiffs such as Dill. Courts have dismissed

lawsuits against Progressive Insurance and a company it partners

with to provide grants to Black entrepreneurs, The North Face,

Expedia ( EXPE ) and Texas A&M University.

America First is appealing those rulings, which were largely

made on technical grounds and not the merits of the cases.

Lawsuits against companies, including Meta Platforms ( META ), Expedia ( EXPE ),

Ally Financial and IBM ( IBM ) subsidiary Red Hat, are pending. The

companies have denied wrongdoing.

The group notched a victory last week when a California

federal judge refused to dismiss a white screenwriter's claims

that CBS denied him a staff position on the show "SEAL Team."

The judge did not explain his ruling, which rejected CBS' claims

that its ability to choose writers from specific backgrounds is

protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

The case is Dill v. International Business Machines Corp ( IBM ),

U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan, No.

1:24-cv-00852.

For Dill: Andrew Block of America First Legal; Christopher

Berry of Smith Haughey Rice & Roegge

For IBM ( IBM ): Not available

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