WORLD Gender dispute fires up Google
THOUSANDS of Google employees worldwide have walked off the job to protest what they say is mishandling of sexual misconduct allegations against executives, while the company’s chief leapt to its defence.
Sporting signs including a mocking reference to Google’s original “Don’t be evil” motto ( pictured), staff from Tokyo, Singapore and London to New York, Seattle and San Francisco staged walkouts of about an hour yesterday.
The stance reflects the rising # MeToo- era frustration among women of sleazy behaviour in the male- dominated Silicon Valley.
“Time is up on sexual harassment!” organiser Vicki Tardif Holland shouted, her voice hoarse, at a gathering of about 300 people in Cambridge, Massachusetts. “Time is up on systemic racism. Time is up on abuses of power. Enough is enough!”
About 1000 Google workers in San Francisco swarmed into a plaza in front of the city’s historic Ferry Building, chanting, “Women’s rights are workers’ rights!”
The demonstrations reflected a sense among some of the 94,000 employees at Google and parent Alphabet that the company isn’t living up to its professed ideals, and the newer injunction in its code of conduct: “Do the right thing.”
“We’ve always been a vanguard company, so if we don’t lead the way, nobody else will,” Google employee Tanuja Gupta said in New York.
The protests unfolded a week after The New York Times detailed allegations of sexual misconduct against the creator of Google’s Android software, Andy Rubin. The newspaper said Mr Rubin received a $ 125 million payout in 2014 after Google concluded accusations were credible. He has denied the allegations.
The story also disclosed allegations of sexual misconduct against other executives, including Richard DeVaul, a director at the Google- affiliated lab that created self- driving cars and internet- beaming balloons.
Mr DeVaul remained at Google after the accusations surfaced a few years ago but resigned this week without severance, the company said.
Protesters called for an end to forced arbitration in harassment and discrimination cases, a practice that requires employees to give up their right to sue and often includes confidentiality agreements.
Chief executive Sundar Pichai said the company had “drawn a very, very hard line” on sexual harassment.