Google Faces Internal Backlash over Poor Handling of Sexual MisconductTop Stories

November 01, 2018 14:44
Google Faces Internal Backlash over Poor Handling of Sexual Misconduct

(Image source from: www.muslimmirror.com)

After Google announced earlier this week it fired 48 people for sexual harassment since 2016, about 1,500 workers were planning a walk-out at the company's offices worldwide on Thursday, the media reported.

According to a report in The New York Times, over 1,500 - most of them women - plan to strike of almost two dozen company offices around the world to protest Google's handling of sexual harassment and its workplace culture.

Related Content: Google Fires 48 Employees Over Sexual Harassment Claims

"We don't want to feel that we're unequal or we're not respected anymore," Claire Stapleton, 33, Product Marketing Manager at Google's YouTube, was quoted as saying.

Earlier this week, in a letter to employees Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Sundar Pichai said the tech giant was taking a "hard line" on inappropriate conduct.

The letter was in response to a New York Times report that Android creator Andy Rubin received a $90 million exit package despite facing misconduct allegations.

"We want to assure you that we review every single complaint about sexual harassment or inappropriate conduct, we investigate and we take action," said Pichai.

Pichai and Larry Page, co-founder of Google and CEO of its parent company Alphabet over the past weeks "have taken several steps to calm its agitated 94,000-person workforce".

According to the NYT report, two unnamed Google executives said then-Chief Executive Page asked Rubin to resign after the company confirmed a complaint by a female employee about a sexual encounter in a hotel room in 2013.

A Google investigation found the woman's complaint to be credible, the paper reported.

Rubin has said he did not engage in misconduct and left Google of his own accord.

Following the report, Pichai sent an email to all employees of the company, stating that 48 people have been dismissed over the last two years for sexual misconduct.

"We are dead serious about making sure we provide a safe and inclusive workplace. We want to assure you that we review every single complaint about sexual harassment or inappropriate conduct, we investigate and we take action," he said in the email.

-Sowmya Sangam

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