Google Workers Worldwide Walk Out to Protest Sexual Harassment

Hundreds of Google workers in Asia Thursday staged brief midday walkouts with thousands more expected to follow at offices worldwide to protest the company’s lenient treatment of executives accused of sexual misconduct.

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Demonstrations at the company’s offices around the world began at 11:10 a.m. local time in Tokyo. So far, Google staff have walked out in Tokyo, Singapore, Zurich, London, and Dublin.

The Google protest, “Walkout For Real Change”, started unfolding a week after the New York Times published a story on Oct. 25 detailing allegations of sexual harassment against Andy Rubin, the creator of Google’s Android software.

Instead of firing him, Google paid him a hefty US$90 million severance package in 2014 even though the company concluded that the sexual misconduct allegations against him were credible.

Rubin denied the allegations in a New York Times story, which he also said contained “wild exaggerations” about his compensation. Google, however, did not dispute the report.

The same story disclosed allegations of sexual misconduct by other executives, including Richard DeVaul, a director at the same Google-affiliated lab that created projects such as self-driving cars. DeVaul remained at the “X” lab even after allegations of sexual harassment but resigned Tuesday without severance.

On the Twitter page “Google Walkout For Real Change,” employees are demanding five changes in the company's policy. 

Google CEO Sundar Pichai apologized for the company’s “past actions” in an email sent to employees Tuesday. “I understand the anger and disappointment that many of you feel,” Pichai wrote. “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.”

In an email last Thursday Pichai and Google’s executive in charge of personnel issues, Eileen Naughton, wrote that Google had fired 48 employees including 13 senior managers for sexual harassment in recent years without paying them any exit sum.

Employees are being urged to leave a flyer at their desk which reads: “I’m not at my desk because I’m walking out in solidarity with other Googlers and contractors to protest sexual harassment, misconduct, lack of transparency, and a workplace culture that’s not working for everyone.”

In a statement late Wednesday, the organizers called on Google parent Alphabet, Inc. to add an employee representative to its board of directors and internally share pay-equity data. They also asked for changes to Google’s human resources practices to make harassment claims a fairer process.

Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai said in a statement that “employees have raised constructive ideas” and that the company was “taking in all their feedback so we can turn these ideas into action.”

The walkout has been gaining huge support from people everywhere.

Mike Clancy, the general secretary of Prospect, the U.K. union for technology workers, said: “The events at Google highlight the frustration many workers feel about their lack of voice in how many tech companies are run. We need a zero tolerance for harassment and greater transparency over terms and conditions for staff.”

Jackie Speier, a Silicon Valley congresswoman, tweeted her support of the walkout using the #MeToo hashtag, which has become a battle cry for women fighting sexual misconduct and harassment.