Scores of Google employees around the world walked away from their desks on Thursday to protest what they perceive as the company’s mishandling of sexual misconduct accusations.
Hundreds of Google workers, from Tokyo to London, participated in the walkout, according to the LA Times. That number will likely rise as employees in the U.S. head to work on Thursday morning.
“Earlier this week, we let Googlers know that we are aware of the activities planned for today and that employees will have the support they need if they wish to participate,” Google chief Sundar Pichai said in a statement to TheWrap. “Employees have raised constructive ideas for how we can improve our policies and our processes going forward. We are taking in all their feedback so we can turn these ideas into action.”
The “Walkout For Real Change” protest comes a week after The New York Times reported Google shielded Android co-founder Andy Rubin after an employee said that he “coerced” her into having oral sex — deciding to publicly praise him and award a $90 million exit package when he left the company in 2014. A rep for Rubin disputed the report to the Times, saying “any relationship that Mr. Rubin had while at Google was consensual.”
Google eventually concluded that the woman’s complaint was “credible,” according to the Times. The company chose to praise Rubin when he exited — “I want to wish Andy all the best with what’s next,” Google co-founder Larry Page said in a statement at the time. The company could have fired Rubin instead, according to the Times, and paid him next to nothing.
Soon after the Times report came out last Thursday, Pichai said in a staff email that he’s “dead serious” about workplace sexual misconduct and said the tech giant has fired 48 people in the last two years for sexual harassment.
(Excerpt) Read more in: The Wrap