Google Layoffs: Workers Lodge Complaint Alleging Unfair Firing Of Employees

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New Delhi: A group of workers of Alphabet Inc’s Google has filed a complaint with a US labour board. The workers have claimed that nearly 50 workers were unfairly fired. This follows after Google’s termination of several employees who opposed the company’s cloud contract with the Israeli government. The complaint was filed with the US National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and alleges that Google’s actions have violated the employees rights under the US labour rights.

Earlier, in April the tech company announced the dismissal of 28 workers due to a sit-in protest at Google’s offices in New York and California. The protest arose in response to Google's 1.2 billion dollars cloud computing project with the Israeli government which is known as Project Nimbus. Google later disclosed that 20 more employees were laid off because they protested against the contract within office premises. ()

Google expressed that the conduct of the workers was “completely unacceptable” and caused other employees to feel threatened and unsafe. “We carefully confirmed and reconfirmed that every single person whose employment was terminated was directly and definitively involved in disruption inside our buildings,” the company stated in a statement. ()

What did the fired employees have to say about Google's stance on the protests

A former Google employee, Zelda Montes who faced arrest during the protests said that Google’s actions were intended to halt organising efforts within the company. She mentioned that Google’s actions were sending a clear message to its employees that dissent would not be tolerated. She further added, “Google is attempting to instil fear in employees," as per news agency Reuters.

Sundar Pichai's response to the protests

In a blog post, Google CEO Sundar Pichai stated that “Ultimately we are a workplace and our policies and expectations are clear: this is a business, and not a place to act in a way that disrupts coworkers or makes them feel unsafe, to attempt to use the company as a personal platform, or to fight over disruptive issues or debate politics."