Google employees push back after mishandled sexual harassment revelations – The Verge

Google’s legal stance could threaten walkout organizers, activists say

2019-01-24T12:29:19-05:00

Less than three months after a massive employee protest, Google is facing a new outcry from workers for advancing a controversial legal argument as part of a labor lawsuit. As first reported by Bloomberg, Google lawyers have argued against a crucial precedent allowing employees to use company email and other infrastructure to circulate petitions, as part of an ongoing dispute before the National Labor Relations Board.

Google made the argument defending anti-harassment actions by management, and says the legal filing has been over-interpreted. "We're not lobbying for changes to any rules," the company said in a statement. "This was a legal d …

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eBay and Airbnb will end mandatory arbitration for sexual harassment claims

2018-11-12T17:21:03-05:00

eBay and Airbnb will both allow sexual harassment victims to take their cases to court, rather than requiring private arbitration, the companies told BuzzFeed. They're the latest companies to drop forced arbitration clauses for sexual misconduct, following Facebook and Google - which promised changes after a massive employee protest. Several other companies told BuzzFeed that they did not have such clauses, and two others - Slack and Tesla - declined to comment.

Airbnb issued a detailed statement about the change, which applies to discrimination claims as well as sexual harassment. "We are a company who believes that in the 21st Century it …

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Facebook is ending forced arbitration for sexual harassment complaints

2018-11-09T17:08:12-05:00

Facebook will no longer force employees to settle sexual harassment claims in private arbitration, following a similar change at Google yesterday, according to The Wall Street Journal. Facebook reportedly announced the news to employees internally today, and vice president of people Lori Goler told the Journal that it wants to "be part of taking the next step" at "a pivotal moment" in the tech industry. It also announced an updated policy on dating among employees, requiring executives to disclose any romantic relationship with another employee, even if they aren't overseeing that employee's work.

Several companies - including Microsoft, Ub …

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The long history behind the Google Walkout

2018-11-09T08:51:33-05:00

Last week, tens of thousands of Google employees around the globe a took part in a largely women-led walkout, organized in response to Google's shielding and rewarding men who sexually harass their female co-workers. Protesters held signs that said "I reported and he got promoted," "Worker's Rights are Women's Rights," and "Time's Up, Tech."

The seven main organizers wrote that they were demanding "an end to the sexual harassment, discrimination, and systemic racism that fuel this destructive culture" in tech. Among their demands were an end to forced arbitration that disadvantages women who are sexually harassed and pay transparency that w …

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Google announces new sexual assault and harassment rules after mass protest

2018-11-08T12:20:50-05:00

Google is announcing new policies around sexual harassment and diversity, following a worldwide employee protest last week. The new policies reflect demands from the protestors, who met with Google leadership earlier this week. "We recognize that we have not always gotten everything right in the past and we are sincerely sorry for that. It's clear we need to make some changes," wrote CEO Sundar Pichai in an email to employees, which he posted publicly today. The organizers of the walkout, however, say that Google "ignored several of the core demands" they'd put forward.

Pichai wrote that Google "will provide more transparency on how we hand …

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Over 20,000 Google employees participated in yesterday’s mass walkout

2018-11-02T20:25:55-04:00

More than 20,000 Google employees and contractors participated in the mass global walkout yesterday to protest the company's handling of sexual harassment allegations against top executives, according to organizers of the protest who published a Medium post this evening. As of September 30th, 2018, Google had 94,372 full-time and contract employees worldwide, meaning more than 20 percent of the entire company participated in the walkout. The event was sparked by an investigation from The New York Times that revealed how Android co-founder Andy Rubin was paid $90 million upon his exit from the company after it learned of a sexual assault alle …

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The Google walkout offers a playbook for successful corporate protests

2018-11-02T06:00:17-04:00

Companies are not democracies. But companies born in democracies sometimes display their values, as when social networks cite the First Amendment in drafting their policies around content moderation.

The act of protest is not not limited to democracies, of course. And yet there was something wonderfully democratic about today's Google walkout, in which thousands of Googlers left their desks to demonstrate against their leadership's problems with swiftly separating sexual harassers from the company. A large group of loosely connected people, moved to common action, came together to seek redress for their grievances.

And I suspect, in the lo …

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Google organizers call for new harassment policies amid mass walkout

2018-11-01T14:02:11-04:00

Hundreds of Google employees gathered in a New York park today to protest their employer's handling of sexual harassment, part of a worldwide protest that included events in Dublin, London, Tokyo, Berlin, and several other cities. The employees are demanding that Google create a more transparent and effective process for handling sexual misconduct - and that it improve a culture that has allegedly fostered harassment and assault.

The mass walkout followed an explosive report that Android co-founder Andy Rubin was given a $90 million severance package after allegedly sexually assaulting a fellow employee. "This walkout is the culmination of …

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Google employees worldwide are walking out today to protest handling of sexual misconduct

2018-11-01T02:09:58-04:00

Employees are walking out of Google offices worldwide in protest today as a storm around the company's handling of sexual harassment cases continues to gather strength. Organizers of the Google Walkout for Real Change tell The New York Times that more than 1,500 employees, mostly women, are planning to walk out from more than 60 percent of Google's offices at 11:10AM as timezones roll around the world.

"We don't want to feel that we're unequal or we're not respected anymore," said Claire Stapleton, a YouTube product marketing manager, to the Times. "Google's famous for its culture. But in reality we're not even meeting the basics of respect …

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Alphabet executive named in NYT sexual misconduct exposé resigns

2018-10-30T19:31:55-04:00

Alphabet executive Rich DeVaul, pictured above, has left the company following accusations of sexual harassment published by The New York Times. | Photo: Alphabet

An executive at Google parent company Alphabet's X division has resigned after being named in a high-profile New York Times investigation into the company's mishandling of sexual harassment claims, according to Axios. The executive, Rich DeVaul, held the title of "Director of Rapid Evaluation and Mad Science" at X, formerly known as Google X and the division responsible for Alphabet's experimental "moonshots" projects like self-driving car unit Waymo and the Google Glass wearable headset. He did not receive an exit package of any sort, Axios reports.

The initial investigation primarily centered on Android co-founder Andy Rubin, who an emplo …

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