They are demanding Google end its practice of forced arbitration, which prevents its staff from filing lawsuits against the company

Google employees across all its over 40 offices worldwide are staging walkouts to protest the company’s mishandling of sexual misconduct.

The first walkout was held in Singapore, though, it was likely conducted only within the confines of Google’s office. The country has stringent rules governing public demonstrations; registered organisers are only allowed hold to them at the Speaker’s Corner, a small park near the CBD.

Google’s employees are in an uproar over their company after an explosive New York Times article found that three cases of senior executives sexual harassing their subordinates — and, in one instance, an interviewee — were covered up.

The most prominent case involved Andy Rubin, the founder of Google’s Android platform: a female employee had accused him of forcing her into conducting oral sex in a hotel room.

While her claim was founded to be “credible”, the company did not fire Rubin; Co-founder Larry Page only asked for his resignation.

In addition, Rubin was given a substantial exit package of US$90 million. He left the company in 2014.

Rubin has refuted the New York Times‘ report, claiming that it contained many inaccuracies and that it was part of a smear campaign by his ex-wife Rie Rubin, an ex-Google employee.

In another case, Amit Singhal, the ex-Head of Google Search, was accused of groping a female colleague at an off-site event in 2015. Once again, the company did not dismiss him but negotiated an exit package in the millions of dollars.

Singhal went on to join Uber as Senior Vice President of Engineering in 2017. but was asked to resign only weeks later when Recode informed Uber’s executives about his sexual misconduct case at Google. Singhal has denied any wrongdoing.

Also Read: Today’s top tech news, Oct 26: Google fires 48 for sexual harassment over past 2 years

And finally, in 2013, Richard DeVaul, Head of Alphabet’s research lab Google X’, was accused of asking an interviewee to take off her shirt so he could offer her a backrub. The incident took place at the art festival Burning Man.

The interviewee did not get the job, and reported the incident to Google only two years later. Google assured her that “appropriate action was taken” but told her not to publicise the matter.

DeVaul has publicly apologised for his “error of judgement” and resigned from the company on Tuesday, without an exit package.

In all three sexual misconduct cases, Google kept knowledge of them from the public sphere and even its own employees.

Google’s employees are now demanding that company enact these five changes:

1. An end to Force Arbitration in cases of harassment and discrimination (this would enable victims to file lawsuits against Google).
2. A commitment to end pay and opportunity equity.
3.  A publicly disclosed sexual harassment transparency report.
4. A clear, uniform, globally inclusive process for reporting sexual misconduct policy safely and anonymously.
5. Elevate the Chief Diversity Officer to answer directly to the CEO and make recommendations directly to the Board of Director. In addition, appoint an Employee Representative to the Board.

In an internal email obtained by Axios, Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai acknowledged the company’s failure in handling past sexual harassment adequately. He pledged support for the employees who walked out and promised to take a “harder line” in addressing future cases. Here’s the email in full, courtesy of Axios:

“Hi everyone,

Since last week, I’ve heard from many of you. Some of you wrote me personally. Others have shared their thoughts with leaders and fellow Googlers. One thing that’s become clear to me is that our apology at TGIF didn’t come through, and it wasn’t enough. We hear you.

So first, let me say that I am deeply sorry for the past actions and the pain they have caused employees. Larry mentioned this on stage last week, but it bears repeating: if even one person experiences Google the way the New York Times article described, we are not the company we aspire to be.

I understand the anger and disappointment that many of you feel. I feel it as well, and I am fully committed to making progress on an issue that has persisted for far too long in our society… and, yes, here at Google, too.

As CEO, it’s been personally important to me that we take a much harder line on inappropriate behavior. We have taken many steps to do so, and know our work is still not done. Over the past two years, we have terminated 48 people, including 13 senior managers and above for sexual harassment. None of these people received an exit package. And to clarify: in that time, we have also not provided any exit packages to executives who departed voluntarily in the course of a sexual harassment investigation.

Some of you have raised very constructive ideas for how we can improve our policies and our processes going forward. I am taking in all your feedback so we can turn these ideas into action. We will have more to share soon. In the meantime, Eileen will make sure managers are aware of the activities planned for Thursday and that you have the support you need.”

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Image Credit: Twitter

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