Last month, an engineer at Google was fired after he suggested in a memo that men were biologically better suited towards jobs in the tech industry. And now, three female former employees at Google (NASDAQ:$GOOGL) have filed a lawsuit accusing the technology giant of discriminating against women in both pay and promotions.

The proposed class action lawsuit was filed on Thursday, September 14, in California state court in San Francisco. It comes at a time when Google faces an ongoing investigation by the United States Department of Labor into sex bias in pay practices.

As of right now, the lawsuit appears to be the first to make class action sex bias claims against Alphabet Inc.’s Google.

What Do We Know So Far?

The plaintiffs in Thursday’s suit are a former Google software engineer, a former manager, and a former communications specialist. They are claiming that Google pays women in California less than their male counterparts who perform very similar tasks, and that they assign female workers jobs that are less likely to lead to a promotion down the road.

“While Google has been an industry-leading tech innovator, its treatment of female employees has not entered the 21st century,” Kelly Dermody, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said.

The women say that Google violated California laws which require equal pay for similar work and banning unfair and unlawful practices of business.

So, what does Google have to say about the lawsuit? Gina Scigliano, a spokeswoman for Google, denied the claims in a statement, and she said employment decisions are made by various hiring and promotion committees, and are examined “to make sure there is no gender bias.”

“If we ever see individual discrepancies or problems, we work to fix them, because Google has always sought to be a great employer, for every one of our employees,” Scigliano said.

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