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Thousands of employees write to Google, demand better protection against workplace harassment
The open letter has so far been signed by more than 1,300 people on Medium, which has also published their names.
The employees of tech giant Alphabet have written an open letter addressed to CEO Sundar Pichai demanding a safe environment against harassment in Google. The letter published on an online blogging platform, Medium, cited a recent report published in The New York Times in which its former employee narrated her ordeal of harassment case and how it was handled by the company.
The open letter has so far been signed by more than 1,300 people on Medium, which has also published their names.
The employees also laid out two demands as they asked the company to stop protecting the accused. The first demand is that Google strip harassers of their status of team leads. "No harasser should manage or lead a team — whether directly or indirectly — including dotted line reports or managing temps, vendors, or contractors," it read.
They also asked Alphabet to "mandatorily" change the teams of the harasser in case the claims are verified to ensure employees don't work alongside their tormentors.
"This is a long pattern where Alphabet protects the harasser instead of protecting the person harmed by the harassment. The person who reports harassment is forced to bear the burden, usually leaving Alphabet while their harasser stays or is rewarded for their behavior," the open letter stated.
The letter also cited examples of two more employees who were awarded by the company despite the harassment allegations against them.
"This is not news to many people at Alphabet. Andy Rubin, the creator of Android mobile software, was awarded a $90 million exit package after a woman accused him of coercing her into performing oral sex. Amit Singhal, a former search executive, was awarded $35 million when he was forced to resign after a sexual assault investigation," the letter read.
"Alphabet workers deserve the right to work in an environment free from their abusers. Alphabet must prioritize the safety of their workers by prioritizing the concerns of those harmed," it also stated.
Google, an entity of Alphabet, is an old subject of criticism for its treatment of cases related to harassment. In 2018, the company said it would change its policies to improve their response to such issues after more than 20,000 employees staged a walkout on the matter.
That time, walkout organisers had applauded the progress on sexual harassment in hope that it would come as much-needed relief to complainants.
However, in the open letter, the signatories expressed their disappointment to the company and said "it did not meet any of the Google Walkout demands (temps, vendors, contractors, and workers from Alphabet companies other than Google are still forced into arbitration).
"Alphabet has not changed... We’ve already raised these issues before. The Google Walkout demands are still waiting to be met!" it also said.
