The protest came in response to a report which stated that Google paid millions of dollars in exit package to its employee accused to sexual misconduct
Thousands of Google employees across the globe staged a protest by walking out of their offices in response to the company’s handling of sexual harassment cases.
Protestors working at Google’s New York office chanted ‚Stand Up! Fight Back!’as they poured into the streets with the sigh boards displaying the message- ‚Time’s Up Tech‘ and ‚Worker’s Rights Are Women’s Right‘. A similar scene was witnessed at Google offices in India, Dublin, London, Tokyo, Singapore, Zurich, Berlin, Chicago, Seattle and at its headquarters in Mountain View, California.
The protest came in response to a New York Times report which revealed that Google paid a sum of $90 million in exit package to Android creator Andy Rubin who had been accused of sexual misconduct by an employee. The report further said that Google had shielded many of its top executive accused of sexual misconduct in the past, the list included lab X director Richard DeVaul. While Rubin reacted to the report calling it a ’smear campaign to disparage him during his divorce‘, DeVaul left the company without an exit package.
The report led to Google CEO Sundar Pichai penning down a letter to the employees highlighting the fact that the company had fired 48 employees, including 13 of its senior executives, over past two year over sexual misconduct allegations and that none of them had received an exit package. He also reassured that Google was committed to making its work places safe for its employees.
Despite his assurances, employees‘ discontent over the matter continued to increase, which ultimately led to the employees staging a protest on Thursday.
„This was the $90 million straw that broke the camel’s back… But there are so many stories that we’ve heard for so long, and it’s time for action and change,“ Celie O’Neil-Hart, one of the protest organizers and who works on YouTube marketing told Reuters as she joined the protest at the Google office in Mountain View.
The protestors demanded that the company report sexual harassment statistics publicly and that it ends private arbitration of such cases. They also demanded that the chief diversity officer be able to advice the company’s board of directors directly.
According to a New York Times report, the protestors also demanded that the company should disclose salaries and compensation of employees involved in sexual misconduct cases.
„The numbers and facts don’t match with the intentions“ of Google on equality and safety for underrepresented groups… We need to reprioritise energy and really focus on these issues,“ Rana Abdelhamid, who works in Google Cloud’s marketing division in San Francisco, told Reuters.
